After Tucson, schools seek aid to track trouble

Faculty members are seeking advice on dealing with disruptive outbursts and intimidating behavior, says Brian Van Brunt, president of the American College Counseling Association.

Jared Loughner, 22, is accused of shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 other people, six fatally, Jan. 8. He was attending Pima Community College in November when he was banned from campus for outbursts that scared students and teachers.

At Western Kentucky University, where Van Brunt is director of counseling, staffers "are looking at what would we do if we had a similar case," he says. His university has three or four students a year who exhibit a worrisome combination of self-isolation and simmering aggression, he says, and they're required to accept treatment on campus as a condition of staying in school.

Several schools are expanding mental health services by making part-time counselors full-time or adding private counselors, including Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, Mich., says Brett Sokolow of the National Behavioral Intervention Team Association.

Many colleges added behavioral intervention teams after the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, when student Seung Hui Cho killed 33 people, including himself. Usually, a team of counselors, teachers and campus police meets regularly to track complaints about disturbing behavior from instructors, dormitory workers and others. The team assesses the threat and coordinates action.

Membership in the association jumped 14% to 578 schools since the Arizona shooting.

Bookings for training rose from 16 schools in all of December to 17 in the first 10 days after the shooting, says Scott Lewis of the National Center for Higher Education Risk Management, a law firm that advises colleges on intervention teams.

William Serrata, vice president for student services at South Texas College in McAllen, Texas, says he asked Lewis to add an evaluation of Pima's handling of Loughner to a previously planned lecture next month.

Gaston College in Dallas, N.C., hired Lewis before the shooting to discuss behavioral intervention teams. Now a team is more likely to become a reality, says Wanda Wyont, director of retention.

"We're all going to take more caution and maybe develop procedures that would help us identify behavior that could be a problem," Wyont says.

At Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, counselors are making a video to remind staff to refer students who hint of suicide or violence to counseling, or call police if danger looms, says Estela Gutierrez, director of counseling.

At Northern Virginia Community College, about 10 students and faculty members contacted Pat Lunt, special assistant for student mental health and behavior, about problem student behavior in the 10 days after Jan. 8. She fielded 130 calls in all of 2010. A report about threatening Facebook postings probably would have gone unreported before, she says.

A student was taken for a hospital evaluation and banned from Jackson Community College in Jackson, Mich., Jan. 14 after ranting at a student advocate, says Cindy Allen, director of community relations. The student was allowed back last week, she says, after a dean "made sure he understood that ... you shouldn't make statements that can be misconstrued as threatening."

A day before the Tucson shooting, the community college had held a training session that reviewed violent incidents at other schools. Some faculty members complained that it was too disturbing, Allen says. "After Arizona, people said, 'OK, now we see it's important, what other training can we get?'"

By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY


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