EDITORIAL -Clear laws make for clear solutions

From Columbine to Virginia Tech to last month’s incident at Northern Illinois University,… From Columbine to Virginia Tech to last month’s incident at Northern Illinois University, school shootings unfortunately seem to be on the rise in the United States. And no matter how safe the campus or how tight the gun control laws, these tragic events can still occur.

But following the massacre at Virginia Tech, the Federal Education Department is hoping to make such catastrophes easier to prevent. After finding that many university officials were reluctant to report suspicious behavior in students for fear of breaching student privacy, the department proposed new regulations to clarify the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

The act will undergo minor changes intended to make its provisions easier to understand. According to The New York Times, lawyers said the modifications will “stop administrators from invoking the privacy act as an excuse for inaction.”

The shooting at Virginia Tech killed more than 30 people. According to the Times, Carolyn Rude, the chair of the English Department at Virginia Tech, said of shooter Seung-Hui Cho, “There were signs that he was troubled.” Rude said, without revealing details, that the English department intervened. But a report by a panel named by Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine found that there were misunderstandings about the privacy laws among university officials, which prevented them from exchanging Cho’s mental health information and taking further action.

Had university officials better understood the privacy act and reported shooter Seung-Hui Cho’s mental health problems to the appropriate people, the tragedy could have been prevented.

But while clarifying the privacy rules is a positive that could prevent future shootings, it is not enough. University officials should be educated on the ins and outs of the law so that they will know how much authority they have in reporting suspicious behavior.

University officials should also be careful and report students only after a close examination of their behavior. Otherwise, it is likely that anyone with seemingly strange behavior who does not fit a particular social mold could be reported.

Furthermore, officials should not take advantage of the law to report students to the police as if they are criminals. Rather, the goal should be to notify counselors or help centers in order to try and assist students with potentially dangerous problems. Privacy standards should be clearer so that more people can acquire help, not so the police can keep tabs on students.

In today’s society, where violence seems to be increasing everyday, the only reasonable solution to school shootings is found at the source – helping those who show signs of suspicious behavior. And with these new regulations, it will be easier to do just that.