Letters to the Editor

• Your fellow man

  [Read the article: "I think he was just a confused kid"]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Re: psychprof's comment:

  "Most people suffering from mental illness are not a danger to anyone but themselves, so let's not rush into judgement."

  I find that many people who are in denial about the dangers posed by psychotic people don't know many psychotic people. My sister has been schizophrenic for 30 years, and I am intimately familiar with her behavior and that of other schizophrenic people I have known over the years.

  People who receive the proper support and medication are rarely violent. People who are delusional but are NOT on anti-psychotic drugs are far more violent than the general population.

  I understand the shooter was on an anti-depressant. An anti-depressant is not an anti-psychotic drug and can actually have a paradoxical effect on seriously delusional people or people with biopolar disorder.

  As the facts come out, it is becoming increasingly clear that many people, including the shooter's family, classmates and professors, knew how seriously ill this young man was.

  It is almost impossible to commit a person to a mental institution who will not sign himself in and who can't be deemed a danger to himself or others. But, often, people CAN be talked into signing themselves in.

  Nevertheless, I think there was adequate evidence that this man was a danger to others. He apparently was stalking women and had set a fire in his dorm. And he had written violent, rambling and disturbing "plays" that caused his professor to get him to seek counseling. And his classmates even identified him as a potential school shooter based on his behavior and his violent writings.

  And yet the VT administration says they knew little about him because he was a "loner."

  This implies that they know more about students with outgoing personalities? Ridiculous. They knew plenty about him; as much as they know about any student. They knew where he lived and who his parents were. That's quite a lot of information.

  I realize laying blame is not politically correct, but I blame the school administration. And I blame a society where it's acceptable to plug into an iPod and talk on a cell phone while you ignore your fellow man.

  People who are clearly in great pain, acting strangely, or who are deeply disturbed are simply ignored as a matter of course, as we go about our business.

  I read that two of the shooter's classmates recently invited him to sit with them at lunch. Although the shooter wouldn't speak, one of the young men finally got him to smile when he told a funny story. He made brief contact with this disturbed and lonely young man because he reached out to him.

  Imagine if someone had taken the time to get this man to a hospital or somewhere where he could have gotten help and the proper medication. Or implored his parents to get him checked into a hospital, at least for observation.

  How do we know the young man might not have been grateful for the attention; grateful for the loving concern? He apparently took anti-depressants, so he knew he needed help. It's a shame no one took him seriously.

  Permalink Tuesday, April 17, 2007 04:23 PM