Posted on 01/10/2011 5:04:12 AM PST by bronxville
Gunman’s Former College Instructor: ‘I Was Afraid for My Life’
January 10, 2011 at 7:37am by Scott Baker
“I wasn’t too surprised that it was Jerry Loughner. I felt like he was planning something all along – I just didn’t know when he was going to do it and where he was going to do it. Just from what the other students said, and what I experienced in the classroom, I just thank God he did not do anything to us. It is very sad to hear what happened yesterday.”
Really, what could they do?? There's a lot of crazy people walking around out there. Do you want the government to have the power to enter into homes and search through personal effects just because someone has a mental illness? And who would define what "mental illness" is?
And those blaming his parents, I don't know anything about their efforts, but at 22, this guy was an adult. From personal experience, it is almost impossible to get someone who is mentally ill committed. Even threats of killing a family pet are not enough!!
Events like this are the price we pay for living in a free society!! But we seem have a need to attach blame to someone or something after a tragedy.
This boy did not belong in college. He was incapable of handling any social interactions. His parents were looking to get him out of the house because they could not deal with him any more and they "didn't have the heart" to institutionalize him -- they wanted him "cared for in the community."
At some point, you have to weigh compassion with the real possibility that someone can't be helped in the environment they are in.
The college classsroom is no place for the mentally disturbed and paying students have no obligation to make accomodations for such, no matter what you or the ACLU thinks about it.
Read on here last night that the mother works for Pima County.
Indeed. He did everything but send up flares, and yet, right up until he started shooting, if the authorities had moved in and jailed him "on suspicion", there would have been a Hue and Cry from the left, and perhaps from some on the right.
Where to draw the line is the sticking point, but it seems to me that once you sound off in public that you want to kill somebody, and I'm not talking about sports, the authorities should have some leeway.
In your parenting resume, you don't mention whether you have atttempted to raise, love and eventually buried a mentally ill child.
How many psych sessions have you ever participated in? And argued with insurance companies to help you pay for?
How many psych rehab hospitals have you called or visited?
How many outpatient therapy sessions did you take your children to? Oh wait, they never needed therapy. They were not mentally ill. Because you were such an exemplary parent.
bleechhh
We know nothing about whether Jared's parents went through any or all of the above. I have lived it and it is living hell. If they were living for almost a decade or more in this helpless horror of depression at the decline of their child, no wonder the neighhors are now telling the press they were "odd" and "unfriendly" and "detached" But you go ahead- Judge the parents of the mentally ill shooter at your will, you need no facts other than they are parents and their 22 yr old son did a terrible thing so it is their fault.
Unfortunately- I can't help but judge “goody two-shoes” (and very lucky) you. Parent of the Year. Five times over. Hooray. All we need to stop mental illness is good parents like you. Better get out there and volunteer. Maybe try fostering, or adopting a troubled kid, you obviously have all the answers.
look, the ACLU should have stepped in and got him a group home. But cruelty and isolation don’t work, kapish? Yeah, kid needed help. No Malodorous didn’t get him any and participated in his mistreatment at college.
I'm sorry you do not agree, but we gave the kid every single bit of help we were legally allowed to. He flipped out on his own.
In fact, several female students wended up filing complaints because if his sexually explicit comments and actions. Would it have made you feel better if we'd made them sit next to him, so as not to damage his self-esteem further?
Thank you for sharing this.
It is such a mistake for people to pre-judge the parents. The road for parents who have to deal with mental illness in their family is a huge weight...no one can truly understand without walking that walk thru the mental health care system. If people think that the average healthcare system is a trial...I understand the mental helath care systmem is 100 times worse....not to mention the laws which prevent parents from intervening once they become of age.
Lemme guess, you're a card carrying member huh?
No one is under any obligation to make accomodations for the mentally disturbed, and the mentally disturbed don't enjoy special rights either. A college classroom full of paying students trying to learn is the LAST place you want to encounter such a creature.
Why is that so hard for you to understand?
It doesn’t matter what was on the internet. He lived in a home with two adults who were negligent in his care. Having been warned by the community college that their son was not mentally healthy they did what? nothing? Or did they contact a doctor and he did nothing? I’m amazed at how the media is not even asking these questions. The whole story has turned into a conversation about whether or not we need to restrict the internet due to right wing extremists.
Reminds me of the Andrea Yates story - the woman who killed her children. Who did Katie Couric blame that on? the husband? the right wing Christians? If memory serves, that was the template of the media at the time. She wasn’t responsible - her Christian husband made her do it.
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