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Is
there any parent of a college student who didn’t
watch events unfold on April 16 and wonder:
“Could this happen at my child’s campus?”
Gov.
Timothy M. Kaine has done the right thing by
moving swiftly in the aftermath of the Virginia
Tech tragedy, from appointing a first-rate
chairman in retired state police superintendent W.
Gerald Massengill, to making clear that the
panel’s mission is not to point fingers or
second-guess the front-line decisions made that
day.
On
the first day of hearings, panel member Tom Ridge
urged that one of the panel’s recommendations
should be to improve communications between the
courts, schools, and the state – especially on
matters pertaining to those who might, by virtue
of mental illness, harm themselves or others. As
he learned while Secretary of Homeland Security,
bureaucratic stovepipes that separate information
streams about safety and security have got to be
dismantled.
Just
a thought: Could we include one more institution
-- the family -- to the sharing of information? As
parents of four children, my wife and I have
attended more than a dozen college visits,
“move-in day” ceremonies and graduations. Each
includes a speech from the university president or
a dean speaking about the value of “the (insert
name of college) family.”
For
most students, that’s what college becomes. They
spend more of the next four years on campus than
they in the home they grew up in. They live in
close quarters, face new challenges, suffer
heartbreak and experience joy – all with new
friends in their new “family.”
While
the phrase is heartfelt, too often it seems empty.
Families act to protect one another. In healthy
families someone in a position of authority,
typically a parent or parents, takes
responsibility.
Does
the college “family” take responsibility for
safety and security on campus today?
Fueled
by the Baby Boomer generation’s demand for
independence, privacy and freedom, we have
traveled from one extreme to the other. In times
past, the sexes were not were not permitted to
intermingle on the dormitory floor. Today, privacy
is so protected that campuses frequently do little
to protect students from potentially dangerous
classmates – or protect those potentially
dangerous students from themselves.
The
act of protecting requires someone to communicate
dangers. It demands taking steps to protect both
individuals and the community. In a real family
context, protecting a loved one does not require
consultation with a lawyer.
Incredibly,
that’s what colleges find themselves doing. The
1974 Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
guards the educational and health records of
college students, preventing disclosure to parents
without the student’s consent.
Furthermore,
Virginia is one of five states permitting
involuntary commitment only if a person poses an
ill-defined “imminent danger” to himself or
others.
Trying
to separate a dangerous student from the campus
community can require due process, a formal
analysis of the student’s mental health and a
definition of “imminent.”
These
steps make it harder for schools to ensure safety
– and easier for colleges to defer action and
hope for the best.
Where
colleges once worked under the rule of “in-loco
parentis,” where the school was considered to be
acting in place of the student’s parents,
colleges today respect federal and state privacy
laws that prohibit them from sharing with other
authorities details that might save lives. A month
after the Virginia Tech tragedy, school officials
still cite "privacy laws" in declining
to discuss circumstances surrounding the
shooter’s mental health case – even though
information could be learned that might prevent
another tragedy.
Those
cut off from mental health information include
parents. Parents may be footing the bill for
tuition, room, board and hospital insurance, but a
curtain of silence has descended between them and
the university. A culture that zealously guards
student confidentiality prevents them from
learning that their child is a potential suicide
risk or a danger to others.
That’s
wrong. And it doesn’t have to be that way. FERPA
specifically exempts situations where a student is
claimed by parents as a dependent on tax returns
(as are most students), as well as those in which
the student under 21 commits a drug or alcohol
violation. But the cry of “privacy laws”
has become a rationale for university inaction and
a scheme for avoiding litigation.
It’s
time those barriers came down.
Among
the recommendations the Virginia Tech Task Force
might consider is this:
The
scope of the Virginia Tech tragedy was so
significant that when the Review Panel makes its
recommendations, the nation and Congress will be
listening. The panel's conclusions could have a
profound impact on the future of university
safety.
--
May 14, 2007
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