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Virginia Tech Tragedy and the Law
As our nation continues to mourn the victims of the senseless Virginia Tech massacre, many bloggers' thoughts turn to the question of whether this tragedy could have prevented or whether others like it can be prevented in the future. While now's not the time to assign blame (and indeed, without additional information, we really can't make any definitive judgments), here's a list of some of the issues that will be generating additional discussion in the weeks to come:
Restrictions on universities. At Overlawyered, Walter Olson offers a round-up of articles that describe various laws such as the Buckley Amendment (FERPA), the HIPAA medical-privacy law and disabled-rights law, which constrain universities from inquiring about the mental health of students, notifying parents about suicidal tendencies or taking other action to deal with mentally ill students who may pose a threat to themselves or others. In particular, Olson recommends Tamar Lewin's New York Times piece Law Limits Options When Students Are Mentally Ill and links to this thread at Volokh discussing anti-discrimination laws.
Gun Control Laws. Naturally, the Virginia Tech shootings have revived debates over gun control,
including this appeal by Walter Shapiro in Salon magazine entitled Repeal the Second Amendment.
The Limits of Technology. After the tragedy, some have argued that Virginia Tech could have made better use of technology and communications systems to warn students of danger following the first two killings in the dorm. But as Ryan Singel writes here in Wired, though improvements in communication systems are critical, the problem of notification is only partly attributable to technology. There's also the importance of making sure that the recipients of the communication actually take the message seriously. As another post stresses, at the end of the day, technology isn't going to ever protect us fully against these kinds of unexpected acts of horror.
Silent Blogs. April 30 has been designated as One Day of Blog Silence, to honor the Virginia Tech victims, as well as "all other victims of the world." But Diane Levin of Mediation Blog won't be participating. As she writes
here:
Why be silent? What is the point? Why not use this as an opportunity to speak out? To rage against the machine? To stand up for whatever cause you believe in that will reduce human suffering or end violence? Provide better treatment and interventions for the mentally ill? Increase safety on college campuses? Take action against handgun violence? End the war in Iraq? The crisis in Darfur? Any one of the thousand conflagrations that burn around the world? Or, better yet, get away from the keyboard and actually do something? It will be business as usual at this blog on Monday, April 30. I won't be silent.
Posted by Carolyn Elefant on April 20, 2007 at 03:31 PM | Permalink
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Comments
Ms. Elephant:
Thank you this listing of Blogs on the issues stemming from the massacre at Virginia Tech. I have been thinking about the Virginia Tech massacre a lot and about two of my daughters. One teaches creative writing and literature at a U.S. university. The other has finished 5 years of grade school teaching and is headed to graduate school to study journalism.
Creative writing is going to take it in the chops for a while. Is the writer of horrible stories our next killer or our next superb mystery writer or movie mogul? Is the "stalker" scary or is it research for a TV show or MySpace spoof? Knowing the full context of a person's actions is difficult. Shoot, I don't know my own full context.
At any rate I hope it will not hinder imagination, creativity, daring, poetry, beauty, truth, pain, horror in what we are offered in our culture through writing. Their deaths would be far more devastating.
Jon Stewart on the Daily Show on April 18, 2007, had a lengthy interview with Iraq politician/author Ali A. Allawi, "The Occupation of Iraq, Winning the War, Losing the Peace." It was the longest interview I have seen from him, some 9-10 minutes of the half-hour show. It was just after the VT massacre.
Stewart mentioned VT and the mourning we are going through as a country trying to puzzle it out. Then he asked the most sensitive question I have heard about Iraq. How do people in Iraq find time to mourn as a people when 32+ people are killed daily? His guest said we do not. He then told of the deaths of 6 of his employees in Iraq who were killed, his office manager in a suicide bombing. Grieving is to leave Iraq.
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/index.jhtml
It could have been Darfur. It could have been Africa and elsewhere facing annihilation from HIV/AIDS.
We not only have luxury. We have the luxury to mourn too.
I am a full-time volunteer writing about grant information for nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations world-wide.
I will not be silent on April 30, 2007. There is too much to do in this world. And what I do is what I write, what I find and copy and paste in a technological arts and crafts project for NPOs and NGOs. That is also how I grieve.
Posted by: Donald Griesmann, Esq. (NJ) | Apr 21, 2007 10:55:11 AM
Nancy Grace was proven wrong again on all of her assertions on the Winkler case on Thursday April 19th. Doesn’t CNN management ever watch Nancy’s shows anymore?
Nancy Grace has documented herself to be incorrect, in some fashion, on just about every single case Nancy has attempted to cover over the recent months. While Nancy continues to rack up more potential lawsuit cases against herself and CNN for her continued defamation, slander, libel, and even the wrongful death Nancy is currently linked to by Nancy’s own possible illegal actions, it is well documented that Nancy Grace is not un-willing to commit even more such crimes against even more and more victims.
Some Courts have already reprimanded Nancy Grace for some of her documented misconduct. But, Nancy continues to rack up more and more violations of Civil Law, and possibly even Criminal Law too, and it is hard to keep up with the continued violations-count, and her seemingly constant violations Nancy has been committing against victim after victim after victim.
The Lawsuits that are soon to be coming from VanderSloot, Howard Stern of the Anna Nichol Smith case, and others against Nancy infractions (according to the attorneys) and the upcoming Lawsuits from all the Duke defendants, as well as possibly from Winkler herself according to her attorney Ferese, Nancy’s continued law violations appear to be occurring on nearly every single day Nancy is on television.
My goodness, Don Imus just lost his job for stating something that could, in-fact, may have been a factual and accurate statement by his derogatory statements towards the women’s basketball team. How CNN can allow Nancy to document even more violations against even more and more victims is just senseless and a total shame for CNN to just stand by and allow this irreprehensible behavior to continue against more and more victims from Nancy Grace. It is truly just ridiculous. Perhaps it is time to change from CNN to broadcasting Nancy Grace on something like comedy central where her conduct more appropriates is representative.
Has CNN already forgotten that Nancy Grace has current lawsuits filed against her for Nancy’s role in the death of a non-convicted victim who Nancy Grace had called on the telephone? Wake up CNN, Imus had to apparently be removed from the airways, and he wasn’t even directly involved in connection of someone’s death. Nor was Imus continuing to victimize more victims as Nancy has documented that she is continuing.
Maybe you, CNN, can provide the public with the “magic number” CNN feels is the appropriate-limit that Nancy has to achieve with her slanderous, libelous, her connections to a possible wrongful death actions Nancy has documented against another victim(s), and her defamational statements against victims before CNN will take similar actions as MSNBC had to do towards Don Imus.
Everyone will be anxious to hear what the “magic number” CNN will tolerate as the group of victims of Nancy Grace grows and grows from her illegal, immoral, and illicit conduct towards so many victims.
And, how can CNN allow a person like Nancy Grace to be around any true victim at Virginia Tech while Nancy has current lawsuits filed against her for Nancy’s alleged involvement in an early death of a emotionally distraught young mother. The management of CNN needs some serious investigation-measures to be implemented immediately, for the safety of current and potential future victims of the unprofessional conduct of Nancy Grace.
How CNN can allow Nancy Grace to have any access to victims at Virginia Tech is a matter that should, perhaps, be investigated by the authorities and by attorneys for the potential victims of her unprofessional conduct. There is a reason Nancy Grace has lawsuits pending against her, with more lawsuits expected in the near future. For CNN to allow Nancy Grace to have contact with any victim is a crime in and of itself, and needs further consideration by the authorities and by attorneys for the victims sake and safety. Allowing Nancy Grace to have access to any victim is like placing a Predator
near a schoolyard while the trial is ongoing for the alleged Predator. It should just not happen.
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/player.jhtml?ml_video=85250&ml_collection=&ml_gateway=&ml_gateway_id=&ml_comedian=&ml_runtime=&ml_context=show&ml_origin_url=%2F&ml_playlist=&lnk=&is_large=true
Posted by: Michelle from Madison | Apr 21, 2007 10:52:41 PM
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