I assume the parents were killed in a car crash on the way home from the hospital and only this moron survived!!! How the hell do you explain knowing this cretin as your SON ALL THESE YEARS and not having ANY idea that he WAS INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!! The parents should be locked up immediately! Lawsuit,...here I come!
I hate to throw water on a good rant, but there are lunatics like this all over the public schools nowadays. My wife has several students who are completely insane and are only able to function in a somewhat normal manner if they are heavily medicated. They are in the same classes with normal kids.
There have been numerous incidents where they have skipped medication and acted out. Thankfully, none have shown tendencies towards violence, but all it takes is a forgotten pill and one weird idea in their head.
It is entirely possible that Loughner was functional with medication and as an adult, chose to stop taking it. His parents can’t really be blamed for that. Sometimes, these kids use trickery to make their parents think they took their meds when they didn’t.
But I will say it can be extremely difficult for middle class parents to get help for a severely mentally ill teenager
The rich can afford to go through the commitment process, the poor get those servcess paid for by the gubmint with help of gubmint lawyers and social workers to force it to happen despite all the laws impeding parents from getting treatment for almost-adult choldren ...but middle class? Just try going thrugh this on your own, at your own expense....
A large mental health center here will admit as inpatient for 3 day max, all prepaid upfront - many insurances won't touch this type of illness or pay for a couple days or weeks at most- every 365 days. Many teenagers are strong, wily and resistant enough to challenge every aspect of the commitment process. Judges and social workers will sympathize with the kid not the parents and even blame the parents
With no guarantee of treatment success, parents can pay out of pocket for inpatient care - see how fast $1000+ per day out of pocket evaporates in trying to get a child diagnosed and treated for an illness that, factually, may never be cured or even controlled enough to permit release
in a society that is hostile and resistant to getting and keeping your child hospitalized unless and until they have engaged in actual mayhem
Read on here last night that the mother works for Pima County.