Murder at VPI
Townhall.com::Murder at VPI::By Walter E. Williams
Last February, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s legislature unanimously passed a law, the first of its kind in the country, that bans universities from expelling suicidal students. Such a law suggests that the Commonwealth’s legislature is more concerned about the welfare of a suicidal potential murderer than the lives of his innocent victims. As such, those legislators might consider themselves in part culpable for VPI’s 32 murder victims.
There’s also federal law known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA). As VPI’s registrar reports, “Third Party Disclosures are prohibited by FERPA without the written consent of the student. Any persons other than the student are defined as Third Party, including parents, spouses, and employers.” College officials are required to secure written permission from the student prior to the release of any academic record information.
That means a mother, father or spouse who might have intimate historical knowledge of a student’s mental, physical or academic problems, who might be in a position to render assistance in a crisis, is prohibited from being notified of new information.
There is a partial parental remedy for governmental and university usurpation of parental rights through the power of the purse. Prior to writing out a check for a child’s college tuition, have a legal document drawn up where the child gives his parents full and complete access to any mental, physical and academic records developed during the child’s college career. While such a strategy might not be necessary for every parent, it should at least be considered by parents whose child has an unstable mental or physical history.
I think the people who proposed and voted for these stupid laws need to be held directly accountable for their part in this tragedy. Someone needs to take them to civil court and hold them accountable for their actions. Maybe if someone of them were found to be culpable in what occurred at VT last week, then politicians would think twice before passing these kinds of stupid laws.
VPI, Class of ‘92