Virginia Tech Report Criticizes Mental Health System, School Actions (1/2)

A committee gave its findings last week about the Virginia Tech shootings in April. The committee appointed by Virginia's governor and led by a retired state police official called for more than 70 changes. The goal is to prevent a similar tragedy in Virginia or anywhere else.

On April 16th Seung-Hui Cho, a student, killed 32 people and wounded 17 before killing himself. Among other things, the Virginia Tech Review Panel discussed his mental health history.

In 1999, he wrote in middle school about killing himself and others. This was after the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado. His teachers thought he should get treatment, which he did. He also received services in high school. But school officials thought privacy laws prevented sharing this information with Virginia Tech.

There, he caused a number of troubling incidents. The report says the university in Blacksburg did not intervene" class="hjdict" word="intervene" target=_blank>interveneeffectively. It says no one knew all the information and no one put it all together. The committee pointed to problems with Virginia's mental health system. It also found widespread" class="hjdict" word="widespread" target=_blank>widespreadmisunderstanding about federal and state privacy laws.