After decades of treating dangerously ill/malevolent children as "disabled", we got Columbine and its aftermath. The elites took to the airwaves and told us such violence was unprecedented and blamed it on guns, violent videos, etc. What they failed to tell us was that, unlike all previous history, disturbed and/or dangerous individuals had been "mainstreamed" to the point that it was actually illegal for schools and/or other institutions to remove what they considered a threat to public safety (might require a value judgement and we can't have bureaucrats doing THAT!).
It'll be interesting to see if the Kaine Commission is allowed access to Cho's "private records".
Laws are made to protect Society from individuals. They got it half A backwards on this one.
The Ivory Tower Dwellers don’t want to be held responsible in either case. They don’t want to be “litigated” if some mental defective isn’t chosen for their university OR if that same mental defective goes over the edge and kills other peoples’ kids. They want to be held harmless in all cases.
I would think that Congress or legislatures could give them limited immunity.
The only way?
Well, VT admitted him. Couldn't they go back to interviewing students for admission? Then they'd get a peek at someone with a severe personality disorder and get a chance to decide whether they really belong on campus.
Interviewing as a condition of the admission process has apparently gone by the wayside, I've been told.
It sounds like colleges for the most part, don’t want to know and don’t care to protect students or staff.
This only strengthens the need for students and teachers to be allowed to carry concealed weaponry.
Nobody will know til “hell breaks loose” and the only line of defense will be immediate and self-protection of oneself and the ones around self.
"Special educational accommodations" may include someone to read the questions to the student, someone to write the answers, a distraction-free environment, and extra time on the test.
Those special accommodations will continue to be offered once the student is admitted to college. Most common is extra time on exams. I have been told to give some students 250% time on exams to accommodate a "learning disability." That, I was assured by the disability "experts" at my university, was entirely appropriate. (They never would explain how they arrived at 250%.)
I once objected that allowing a student two and a half hours to take a one-hour exam would give him an unfair advantage. Not so, said the "experts"; it merely "levels the playing field." Besides, they said, in real life (outside the university), the ability to work quickly is not important.
In other words, time is not money, and the graduate will continue to expect special accommodations on the job. Nothing could convince the disability "experts" that an engineer who cannot read because of a learning disability will be a severe liability on the job. Apparently, they expected the employer to hire a reader, provide a distraction-free environment, and arrange extended work deadlines for the learning-disabled engineer.
Never mind what VA Tech knew. Cho knew that VA Tech was unarmed.
They'll probably want to avoid that for fear of litigation.
Since when? When does this happen, in multiple classrooms of a college?
If it were true, this sentence would be an indictment of Virginia Tech.
I don't believe it. I call horsesh!t on the whole article.
Well...I have a little reservation about the point of the article. We can never identify and isolate all the unstable people in society. Sure, it’s nice to try, but not too effective. What we can do is allow people to protect themselves from the unstable by not disarming the good guys.
This article makes Cho’s family look worse and worse. They knew their boy was severely screwed up and rather than take responsibility and help him themselves they dumped him on society (and the government) while withholding critical information. Maybe Cho’s victims should sue Cho’s family for failing to warn VaTech that Cho was such a head case.
A little article I submitted elsewhere:
Three Ways To Improve Campus Security
Regardless of who is to blame and for what, VT reminds us that in an age of terrorist threat it is only common sense to improve awareness in the public sphere.
Here are three easy, effective, and non-invasive ways of improving campus security:
1) EMERGENCY WARNING ALARMS: In Iraq, American bases are equipped with simple emergency warning sirens and loudspeakers that provide 100 percent coverage throughout the base. If you are awake you’ll heard it (and usually you’ll be awakened from your sound sleep, given the volume).
CODE RED is a simple but unique sound that means “Go to a safe location; heighten your awareness; stand by for further information.” After anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes comes either a reiteration of the CODE RED siren or the unique CODE YELLOW alarm.
CODE YELLOW is a second unique sound that means the threat has been reduced, but only designated and critical personnel may move about freely, while others are to stay in their present (presumably safer) locations. Usually CODE YELLOW includes some kind of verbal instruction.
CODE GREEN or ALL CLEAR means the threat has been addressed and personnel may resume their normal duties and locations.
This system is simple, affordable and effective in keeping people out of harm’s way during actual or potential emergencies.
2) EMERGENCY ALERTING: The counties of Northern Virginia and indeed all of Metro DC participate in a regional emergency alerting system via the Roam Secure Alert Network.
Best described by the participating counties themselves, the system is “an emergency communication system used by governments, emergency management agencies and first responders to send emergency alerts, notifications and updates to your cell phone, pager, Blackberry, PDA and/or e-mail account.”
It goes on to say that “In the event of an emergency, such as a terrorist attack or severe weather incident, Arlington County emergency management personnel will send important alerts, updates and instructions right to your cell phone or mobile device using your device’s text message (SMS) feature, and/or to your e-mail account(s).”
The system provides nearly realtime information and updates, and is incredibly easy for even the most ardent technophobe to setup and use.
Anyone interested should read the Arlington County pages at www.arlingtonalert.com, or check Roam’s own pages at www.roamsecure.net.
3) AWARENESS AND SELF-DEFENSE TRAINING: Undoubtedly the most controversial aspect of campus security, Awareness and Self-defense Training can be anything from a one-hour mandatory seminar on campus security, to various and optional courses on personal self-defense, and perhaps a campus monitoring program similar to Neighborhood Watch.
There is no need to convert the college campus into a fortress. But it is necessary to improve alerting and awareness, and to admit that these measures will unfortunately be needed at some college campus sometime in the future.