Pima Community College, where Jared L. Loughner, the suspect in Saturday's shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz., was a student until last October, released on Wednesday a series of documents detailing the accused gunman's encounters with the campus police and others over the previous eight months, and showing campus officials' concerns that he might be mentally ill or under the influence of drugs, according to news reports.
The documents give details about a number of disruptive incidents, including classroom outbursts and arguments with instructors, that raised fears of physical violence. They also discuss the college's response to a bizarre posting on YouTube in which a narrator believed to be Mr. Loughner linked the college to the torture of students and called it his "genocide school."
The video, which has been deleted, was posted under a pseudonym, but the narrator identified himself as "Jared ... from Pima College," and a campus police officer who viewed it said he recognized Mr. Loughner's voice, as well as his reflection in a window, according to reports by The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and other news organizations.
The college discovered the video on September 29, and within hours decided to suspend Mr. Loughner, pending a mental-health evaluation. He voluntarily withdrew five days later, during a meeting with college officials to discuss the conditions under which he could return.
The college had overhauled its procedures for dealing with disruptive students last year, The New York Times reported, and put in place a three-member behavior-assessment team that includes a clinical psychologist from outside the college. Campus officials would not say whether that team had discussed Mr. Loughner's case.
Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education, said this week that he believed the college had done what it could to deal with Mr. Loughner's disruptions.
Comments
1. amnirov - January 13, 2011 at 08:35 am
Doesn't this violate FERPA fairly significantly and comprehensively?
2. esautovar72 - January 13, 2011 at 09:57 am
It certainly would seem like it. I thought it odd that the VP for Student Development at the college would so openly comment. But now they have released all sorts of documents, including his transcripts. http://documents.nytimes.com/jared-loughner-pima-community-college-documents?ref=us
3. mkant69 - January 13, 2011 at 10:21 am
This probably isn't a FERPA violation.
FERPA contains an exception for law enforcement records. See 34 CFR 99.8(d). There is also an exception for the release of the final results of a disciplinary proceeding if the student is an alleged perpetrator of a crime of violence. See 34 CFR 99.31 (a)(14)(i). Directory information includes enrollment status.
There is also an exception for health and safety emergencies in 34 CFR 99.31(a)(10) and 34 CFR 99.36, but that would be a stretch considering that the college's press release at http://www.pima.edu/newsreleases/nr2011-01/loughnerjan8.shtml was distributed after the former student was in police custody.
4. 11245928 - January 13, 2011 at 10:23 am
I am certain that they followed FERPA to the letter. Videos on YouTube are in the public domain, and if people see them and recognize a student they are doing so in relation to those. We had a student, Joseph Duncan, who had similar
Robotic, and while academic records were sacrosanct, those things that impinges upon his behavior as recorded in police records were not.
5. amnirov - January 13, 2011 at 12:28 pm
After reading through the NYT archive, it sure seems like Pima was asleep at the switch. Their own internal policies did not protect the public at all. The kid should have been reported to the appropriate authorities for mental evaluation long before he snapped. Oddly, Arizona is one of the few states where that would have been possible. The folks at Pima seem more than a little culpable.
6. proftowanda - January 13, 2011 at 12:43 pm
A question, amnirov, is whether the role of educational institutions is to act to incarcerate students in other institutions? And "long before"? Indications are that Loughner's condition had deteriorated, that his condition upon return to campus last fall was far different from before then.
And then, at that point when Pima did act (although not soon enough for the math adjunct, poor guy; as usual, admins did not act decisively on evidence from those of us on the front lines in classrooms but instead on evidence from Youtube and Google) -- I still am not persuaded by comments here that, owing to FERPA, it could do much more in the absence of evidence that Loughner actually was violent.
As for Arizona's looser laws than in most states re referrals for mental assessment, state laws are superseded by federal laws. Others who came in contact with Loughner could have done so, if they did not have federal laws governing their actions, but educational institutions do: Again, FERPA.
I do expect that, as almost annually since its enactment -- and I was an admin then and remember how impossible FERPA was prior to interpretations for us -- we are about to get yet another interpretation of FERPA. Fine. But until then, it is what it is.
And I am not even getting into funding for enforcement, or the lack of it. A community college, and in that state with all its cutbacks, is supposed to spend funds on pushing students into other institutions rather than pushing them into classes?
7. henr1055 - January 13, 2011 at 02:03 pm
The people on campus that knew about and dealt with Jared were mostly faculty. We are not psychiatrists, or psychologists and administrations are not particularly support of faculty being social workers or police officers. If a faculty member reported it to an administrator the reply would most likely be don't bother we with that I am busy with my vision for the University. Bet things will change now.
8. nebo113 - January 13, 2011 at 10:19 pm
PCC appears to have done the best it could. It handed responsibility to the parents, whom I do not blame for their son's actions. While Pcc might have acted under Arizona's loose 72 hour mental health hold, I cannot blame them for not doing so.
I agree with henri1055 that admins tend to hide their heads in the sand until forced to face reality.
The establishment of solid behavioral intervention teams is a must in today's academy.
9. obelix - January 17, 2011 at 10:28 pm
I was very troubled by the release of all these records at first as well. But it appears that what was released were the records of the PCC campus police department. Law enforcement records are specifically not "educational records" under FERPA and are therefore exempt from its protections.