At a news briefing this morning, a Virginia Tech official defended the university’s actions following 2005 complaints by two female students who said Cho Seung-Hui had harassed them.

According to The Washington Post, the director of the university’s counseling service said it was not Virginia Tech’s responsibility to provide court-ordered counseling after Mr. Cho was released from an involuntary overnight stay in a mental-health facility in December 2005. That treatment, ordered by a state court, came on the heels of complaints to the university police by the two women.

The court had determined that Mr. Cho presented an “imminent danger” to himself or others. According to his mental-health evaluation form, he was released under an order that required him “to follow all recommended treatments.”

Christopher Flynn, the university’s counseling-service director, said: “The court ordered mandatory counseling. Who got notified under that court order, and who it was directed to — to my knowledge, it was not directed to the university.”

“We are not part of the mental-health system of the state,” he added. —Lawrence Biemiller