State of Breakdown: NAU wrestles with safety vs. privacy

Arizona Daily Sun ^ | January 24, 2011 | Hillary Davis, Sun Staff Reporter

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Day two in a three-day series

Once or twice a semester, Dr. Chris Gunn comes across a student so unstable that he and his colleagues at Northern Arizona University get together and decide: Call the parents? Suspend? Have committed involuntarily for psychiatric care?

Speculation has strongly leaned toward alleged Tucson mass shooter Jared Loughner as having untreated paranoid schizophrenia, and his behavior was erratic enough that his school, Pima Community College, suspended him until he could provide a mental health clearance.

The propensity for people with serious mental illness to commit extreme violence like the kind seen in Tucson is exceedingly rare, said Gunn, a licensed psychologist and director of NAU counseling and testing services. Typically, he said, mental illness sufferers are much more likely to be victims of crime, not perpetrators.

SOME STUDENTS SEPARATED

But he did say that more young people are coming to NAU with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia and especially bipolar disorder. This is a result of earlier interventions that allow them to control their conditions at a younger age and enter college.

So NAU provides services, referrals and attention for people who need it. In doing so, the university must also respect these students' privacy, keeping silent unless they act out. And it must recognize its own limitations.

"We all have different roles, and the role of the university, of course, is protecting the safety and being able to conduct classes," Gunn said. "And I can tell you we have done very similar things here at NAU in terms of assessing students to be not dangerous to themselves or others, but their behavior being either so bizarre or so disruptive or so disturbing that we need to get them separated from the university."

Added Gunn:......

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Part I: State of Breakdown: Region's mental health system near breaking point

[choctaw man]

Unstable students: get it right, save lives (possibly); get it wrong, face lawsuits (more than likely)!

[VeniVidiVici]

Gunn said it's unfair to say that Pima Community College washed its hands of Loughner when officials, concerned over his mental health, suspended him -- no more applicable than taking Loughner's fellow gym members to task for not trying harder to get him care.

What? This has GOT to be the dumbest statement I've ever heard. This guy admits that NAU has done involuntary commitments then goes on to say that PCC had no responsibility in regards to Loughner getting eval'd?