A friend of mine forwarded the article below, written by her friend Andy Trekell, superintendent of the Etoile school district in northeast Texas, in which he expresses the frustration that many school officials and educators have about the legal restrictions that prevented teachers, administrators, mental health professionals and police from intervening in time to prevent the Virginia Tech tragedy. Andy gave me permission to post it here. It's worth reading and pondering how to swing the plendulum of the law back without going too far. And how far would be too far?
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We are inundated with the media coverage of the horrendous massacre at Virginia Tech University and the coverage and the things being said by the media and others are just about as horrendous. The media are looking for someone to blame. Whose fault is it? The university police, the teachers and professors, the counselors, the psychiatric hospital, peers of the shooter, the gun laws of Virginia, or the gun dealer? Additionally, the media will point the finger at several others before it’s all over. Granted, in hind-sight, all of the above could have done things differently and each have probably second guessed themselves over and over. Other public entities will learn from this tragedy and develop and implement more specific and detailed procedures for dealing with similar situations. But, for all intents and purposes, their plans and procedures will still be in hind-sight.
But, we have to blame someone or it just will not feel right. So back to the real question; who is to blame? I suggest that each one of us get in front of a mirror, point the finger at our reflection, drop our heads in shame, and take the blame. The problem is that our society will not tolerate intolerance. Our society has been programmed by the media, lawsuits, and laws that regulate privacy and civil rights.
If Virginia Tech University had taken the steps necessary to expel the gunman, they would have been sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and lost. If the university would have divulged information about the gunman that could have brought more attention to his problems, they would have been in violation of FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and would have been sued and lost. If the police would have been more assertive investigating and questioning the shooter back when…., they would have been sued for infringement on his civil rights and lost. The university even went so far as to assign him with a one-on-one teacher because he was so demonic and twisted that he couldn’t function in a regular classroom. The teacher supposedly developed signals that she could give to the teacher’s assistant in case he became violent. Why didn’t Virginia Tech expel him? Because they would have taken a media blood bath and spent thousands upon thousands of dollars in the legal proceedings and lost!
The bottom line is that as a society, we have been programmed to be totally tolerant. So tolerant, we have to accept behaviors, speech, practices, ideas etc. that should not be tolerated because they are harmful to our society. They go against what is good, moral, decent and essential for a productive population and nation. We have allowed God and spirituality to be taken away from schools and other public entities. The moral standards that our country was founded on have been eroded or completely washed away by the idea that we have to totally tolerant of everyone’s beliefs. Our courts have upheld this over and over again to the point that thirty-three innocent young people were murdered in a place that should have been completely safe from anything but a natural disaster. I am not saying that anyone should be mistreated or discriminated against because of their race, national origin, culture, sex, age, or religion. I am saying that it is alright for us to not accept nor tolerate behaviors, actions etc. that are harmful to our societies ability to live safely and in harmony.
Let’s quit looking for a law, a policy or procedure, an entity or organization or a person to blame and look at our society and what we have become. We are all to blame and no amount of legislation is going to keep something like this from happening again. It will continue until our police, schools, courts and others are given the freedom to not tolerate behaviors that are counter-productive to our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
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WHO IS TO BLAME?
By Andy Trekell
By Andy Trekell
Superintendent, Etoile ISD, Texas
We are inundated with the media coverage of the horrendous massacre at Virginia Tech University and the coverage and the things being said by the media and others are just about as horrendous. The media are looking for someone to blame. Whose fault is it? The university police, the teachers and professors, the counselors, the psychiatric hospital, peers of the shooter, the gun laws of Virginia, or the gun dealer? Additionally, the media will point the finger at several others before it’s all over. Granted, in hind-sight, all of the above could have done things differently and each have probably second guessed themselves over and over. Other public entities will learn from this tragedy and develop and implement more specific and detailed procedures for dealing with similar situations. But, for all intents and purposes, their plans and procedures will still be in hind-sight.
But, we have to blame someone or it just will not feel right. So back to the real question; who is to blame? I suggest that each one of us get in front of a mirror, point the finger at our reflection, drop our heads in shame, and take the blame. The problem is that our society will not tolerate intolerance. Our society has been programmed by the media, lawsuits, and laws that regulate privacy and civil rights.
If Virginia Tech University had taken the steps necessary to expel the gunman, they would have been sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and lost. If the university would have divulged information about the gunman that could have brought more attention to his problems, they would have been in violation of FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and would have been sued and lost. If the police would have been more assertive investigating and questioning the shooter back when…., they would have been sued for infringement on his civil rights and lost. The university even went so far as to assign him with a one-on-one teacher because he was so demonic and twisted that he couldn’t function in a regular classroom. The teacher supposedly developed signals that she could give to the teacher’s assistant in case he became violent. Why didn’t Virginia Tech expel him? Because they would have taken a media blood bath and spent thousands upon thousands of dollars in the legal proceedings and lost!
What about stiffer gun laws? Will more stringent gun laws keep criminals from getting guns? Go back to prohibition for a historical perspective. How hard is it for drug users to buy and use drugs? Making guns illegal will not take them out of the hands of those that want a gun. It’s not the gun laws or those that sell guns that are to blame. Again, look in the mirror!
The bottom line is that as a society, we have been programmed to be totally tolerant. So tolerant, we have to accept behaviors, speech, practices, ideas etc. that should not be tolerated because they are harmful to our society. They go against what is good, moral, decent and essential for a productive population and nation. We have allowed God and spirituality to be taken away from schools and other public entities. The moral standards that our country was founded on have been eroded or completely washed away by the idea that we have to totally tolerant of everyone’s beliefs. Our courts have upheld this over and over again to the point that thirty-three innocent young people were murdered in a place that should have been completely safe from anything but a natural disaster. I am not saying that anyone should be mistreated or discriminated against because of their race, national origin, culture, sex, age, or religion. I am saying that it is alright for us to not accept nor tolerate behaviors, actions etc. that are harmful to our societies ability to live safely and in harmony.
Let’s quit looking for a law, a policy or procedure, an entity or organization or a person to blame and look at our society and what we have become. We are all to blame and no amount of legislation is going to keep something like this from happening again. It will continue until our police, schools, courts and others are given the freedom to not tolerate behaviors that are counter-productive to our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
8 comments:
I totally agree with this editorial, provided that everyone else's definition of "behaviors that are counter-productive to our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" match mine exactly.
And right there's the rub, eh?
Reverendmother has hit the nail on the head.
While I understand what you are saying, I think that as a society we need to review legislation enacted with good intentions that prevented timely and effective intervention in this situation.
I agree that FERPA has had unintended disastrous consequences. Immediately upon the heels of this tragedy, one of my friends brought up the emotional difficulties one of her children had encountered in college and her and her husband's fruitless efforts to obtain enough information to assist their child. That particular wonderful young person is no longer in school; perhaps timely intervention would have saved a promising academic career. Abother friend mentioned once that we all need to obtain powers-of-attorney from our chidlren to circumvent FERPA. One of my own sons had a medical problem last year; thankfully he communicated with us, had a friend who spent the night in the ER with him, and a father who dropped everything and drove to his school the next morning. Despite the potential for serious complications in a person of such youth and limited experience that he was unlikely to recognize the potential for disaster, we of course had no communication from either of the emergency university facilities he visited. Another friend whose child was approaching a critical point in a medical situation followed the doctors' advice to fly the student home but not the advice to go to the college to make a parental pick-up; only upon seeing how ill the young person as did she realize that the doctor had been trying to tell her that he wanted to meet with her in person but had felt precluded from saying so on the phone.
In each of the cases I have mentioned, the potential harm was to an individual and not a community, but they are indicative of how far we have gone in limiting community (in thise cases, family) response in order to protect individual rights.
OTH, some of the alternatives the writer seemingly prefers -- loose gun laws and school prayer are the ones that, predictably (G),jump out at me, also limit the community's ability to care for itself, although in ways he happens to approve of.
Many, many dilemmas.
reverendmother certainly hits the nail on the head! Amen to her! A power of attorney is an excellent idea - but shouldn't just apply to young people. Sometimes we more mature folks do ill-considered things or forget to take our meds or.....
GG--
I had a FERPA experience similar to the ones you describe when Babs had an accident in college. It made me frantic.
The reason I posted this article is because of what the author had to say about FERPA and related legislation. This needs to be re-evaluated. And I think gun laws do as well.
The problem now with laws and legislation (and reviewing or re-enacting) is what this writer is talking about. We rely on people to interpret these laws. And when the prevailing societal view is one where common sense is dead and political correctness favors individual rights at all costs over the greater good, then we get what we got at VT. It's a pickle we're in, I believe. The way out, if there still is a way out, is getting narrower.
This is a list of missed opportunities to stop this particular killer, followed up with the old conservative saw "we are too tolerant".
Tolerance, privacy, and safety are always going to be in tension. We need to find where the pendulum should be centered. However, ONE killing by someone with a background of mental health issues should not be enough to overthrow privacy laws (FERPA).
Why not take it to the logical conclusion - lock up EVERYONE who has had suicidal, stalking, or anti-social tendencies for life? Oh yeah - the rest of the world would be pretty empty.
Does anybody know what the event was that CAUSED the FERPA law to be written in the first place?
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