[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 64 (Friday, April 20, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4805-S4807]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
VIRGINIA TECH TRAGEDY
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I have one other short comment I would
like to make, and then I will yield the floor or note the absence of a
quorum.
The Governor of Virginia has asked our country to take a moment of
silence to remember the tragedy this week at Virginia Tech at noon
today. It is also a good time for us to think about our
responsibilities in the U.S. Congress. There is hardly any way we can
express our grief to these families and to that university for what
they have been through this week. It is of such a scale that it is hard
to imagine. We want them to know we have been thinking about them, and
we would like to do whatever we can to help them and to help make sure
nothing like this happens again.
So while Virginia Tech and the Commonwealth of Virginia are reviewing
their responsibilities in light of the tragedy this week at Virginia
Tech, we in the Federal Government ought to be reviewing our
responsibilities too. Our focus should be on whether Federal laws or
regulations unwisely restrict or limit how universities are able to
deal with students who have mental health problems or who otherwise
exhibit behavior about which parents, authorities, or other third
parties should know.
Generally, and many Americans do not know this, under Federal law
universities cannot tell parents about
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their child's problems or their grades without their student's consent.
At least one professor at Virginia Tech who was tutoring the shooter
has been quoted as saying that she felt that Federal laws prevented her
from going to his parents or to others about her concerns. Therefore, I
am sending a letter today to Senator Kennedy and to Senator Enzi, the
chairman and the ranking member of the Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions Committee on which I serve. I am writing them to request that
our committee ask the Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, to
conduct a review of Federal laws, regulations, and relevant State laws
that limit the ability of universities to tell parents or other third
parties about a student's problem without the student's consent.
I would hope that Secretary Spellings could review not only the laws
and the rules, but also the implementation of these rules on campus. I
am a former president of a university. I understand it may very well be
that faculty members, and perhaps even some administrators, are unaware
of the rules, or at least uncertain about how to apply them.
My hope would be that Secretary Spellings could complete her review
within 120 days, and after that our committee might hold a hearing or
roundtable to determine whether there is action we need to take.
I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record at this point a
copy of my letters to Senator Kennedy and Senator Enzi and an article
from the New York Times dated April 19 entitled, ``Laws Limit Options
When a Student Is Mentally Ill,'' which describes very well the
situation in which many university faculty members find themselves.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Hon. Edward M. Kennedy,
Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions, Washington, DC.
Hon. Michael B. Enzi,
Ranking Member, Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor
and Pensions, Washington, DC.
Dear Ted and Mike, While Virginia Tech and the Commonwealth
of Virginia are reviewing their responsibilities in light of
the tragedy this week on the Virginia Tech campus, we in the
federal government should be reviewing our responsibilities,
too.
Our focus should be on whether federal laws or regulations
unwisely restrict or limit how universities are able to deal
with students who have mental health problems or who
otherwise exhibit behavior about which parents, authorities
or other third parties should know. Generally, under federal
law, universities cannot tell parents about their children's
problems without the student's consent. At least one
professor at Virginia Tech who was tutoring the shooter has
been quoted as saying she felt that federal laws prevented
her from going to his parents or to others about her
concerns.
Therefore, I am writing to request that our Committee on
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions ask Secretary of
Education Margaret Spellings to conduct a review of federal
laws, regulations and relevant state laws that limit the
ability of universities to tell parents or other third
parties about a student's problems without the student's
consent. I would hope that Secretary Spellings could review
not only the laws and rules but also the implementation of
these rules on campus.
As a former university president, I understand that it very
may be that faculty members are unaware of the rules or
uncertain about how to apply them. My hope would be that the
Secretary could complete her review within 120 days and,
after that, our committee might hold a hearing or roundtable
to determine whether there is action we need to take.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Lamar Alexander.
____
[From the New York Times, Apr. 19, 2007]
Laws Limit Options When a Student Is Mentally ILL
(By Tamar Lewin)
Federal privacy and antidiscrimination laws restrict how
universities can deal with students who have mental health
problems.
For the most part, universities cannot tell parents about
their children's problems without the student's consent. They
cannot release any information in a student's medical record
without consent. And they cannot put students on involuntary
medical leave, just because they develop a serious mental
illness. Nor is knowing when to worry about student behavior,
and what action to take, always so clear.
``They can't really kick someone out because they're
writing papers about weird topics, even if they seem
withdrawn and hostile,'' said Dr. Richard Kadison, chief of
mental health services at Harvard University. ``Most state
laws are pretty clear: you can only bring students to
hospitals if there is imminent risk to themselves or someone
else, so universities are in a bit of a bind that way.'' But,
he said, some schools do mandate limited amounts of treatment
in certain circumstances.
``At the University of Missouri, if someone makes a suicide
attempt, they mandate four counseling sessions, for
example,'' said Dr. Kadison, an author of ``College of the
Overwhelmed: The Campus Mental Health Crisis and What To Do
About It.''
Universities can find themselves in a double bind. On the
one hand, they may be liable if they fail to prevent a
suicide or murder. After the death in 2000 of Elizabeth H.
Shin, a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
who had written several suicide notes and used the university
counseling service before setting herself on fire, the
Massachusetts Superior Court allowed her parents, who had not
been told of her deterioration, to sue administrators for
$27.7 million. The case was settled for an undisclosed
amount.
On the other hand, universities may be held liable if they
do take action to remove a potentially suicidal student. In
August, the City University of New York agreed to pay $65,000
to a student who sued after being barred from her dormitory
room at Hunter College because she was hospitalized after a
suicide attempt.
Also last year, George Washington University reached a
confidential settlement in a case charging that it had
violated antidiscrimination laws by suspending Jordan Nott, a
student who had sought hospitalization for depression.
``This is a very, very difficult and gray area, when you
take action to remove the student from the campus
environment, versus when you encourage the student to use the
resources available on campus,'' said Ada Meloy, director of
legal and regulatory affairs at the American Council on
Education. ``In an emergency, you can share certain
information, but it's not clear what's an emergency.''
Ms. Meloy estimated that situations complicated enough to
involve a university's lawyers arise, on average, about twice
a semester at large universities.
While shootings like the one at Virginia Tech are extremely
rare, suicides, threats and serious mental-health problems
are not. Last year, the American College Health Association's
National College Health Assessment, covering nearly 95,000
students at 117 campuses, found that 9 percent of students
had seriously considered suicide in the previous year, and 1
in 100 had attempted it.
So mental health experts emphasize that, whatever a
college's concerns about liability, the goal of campus
policies should be to maximize the likelihood that those who
need mental-health treatment will get it.
``What we really need to do is encourage students to seek
mental health treatment if they need it, to remove any
barriers to their getting help, destigmatize it, and make it
safe, so they know there won't be negative consequences,''
said Karen Bower, a lawyer at the Bazelon Center for Mental
Health Law in Washington, who represented Mr. Nott.
With the Virginia Tech killings, many universities are
planning to remind faculty members of their protocols.
``We're actually going to go ahead and have the counseling
service here do a session for all our instructors and faculty
on what to look for, what the procedures are, and what the
counseling center can do,'' said Shannon Miller, chairwoman
of the English department at Temple University.
At Harvard, Dr. Kadison said, dormitory resident assistants
watch for signs of trouble, and are usually the first to
become aware of worrisome behavior--and to call a dean.
``The dean might insist that they get an evaluation to make
sure they're healthy enough to live in a dorm,'' he said.
``If it's not thought that they're in any immediate danger,
they can take or not take the recommendation.''
Last month, Virginia passed a law, the first in the nation,
prohibiting public colleges and universities from expelling
or punishing students solely for attempting suicide or
seeking mental-health treatment for suicidal thoughts.
``In one sense, the new law doesn't cover new territory,
because discrimination against people with mental health
problems is already prohibited,'' said Dana L. Fleming, a
lawyer in Manchester, N.H., who is an expert on education
law. ``But in another sense, it's groundbreaking since it's
the first time we've seen states focus on student suicides
and come up with some code of conduct for schools.''
College counseling services nationwide are seeing more use.
``We're seeing more students in our service consistently
every year,'' said Alejandro Martinez, director for
counseling and psychological services at Stanford University,
which sees about 10 percent of the student body each year.
``Certainly more students are experiencing mental illness,
including depression. But there's also been a cultural
shift,'' Mr. Martinez said, ``in that more students are
willing to get help.''
College officials say that a growing number of students
arrive on campus with a history of mental-health problems and
a prescription for psychotropic drugs. But screening for such
problems would be illegal, admissions officers say.
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``We're restricted by the disabilities act from asking,''
said Rick Shaw, Stanford's admissions director. ``We do ask a
question, as most institutions do, about whether a student
has been suspended or expelled from school, and if they have
been, we ask them to write an explanation of it.''
Federal laws also restrict what universities can reveal.
Generally, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act,
FERPA, passed in 1974, makes it illegal to disclose a
student's records to family members without the student's
authorization.
``Colleges can disclose a student's private records if they
believe there's a health and safety emergency, but that
health and safety exception hasn't been much tested in the
courts, so it's left to be figured out case by case,'' Ms.
Fleming said.
And the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
prohibits the release of medical records. ``The interaction
of all these laws does not make things easy,'' she said.
Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, on Monday America was devastated by the
deadliest shooting rampage in our Nation's history. A gunman using two
semi-automatic handguns, shot and killed 32 students and teachers and
injured several dozen others before turning one of his guns on himself.
Witnesses described scenes of chaos and grief, with students jumping
from second-story windows to escape gunfire, while others heroically
blocked their classroom doors to shield them from the gunman.
Many of us watched this tragedy unfold on the news, finding it
difficult to grasp the true magnitude of it. Parents and grandparents
across America were thinking about the horror of one's child being
caught in the middle of such chaos. There is little that could be worse
for a parent than sending a child off to college, only to lose them to
a senseless act of gun violence.
I express condolences to the family, friends, and community touched
by the tragedy at Virginia Tech. I know I reflect the feelings of the
people of Michigan when I say that our thoughts and prayers are with
them in this hour of pain and grief.
Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, today I express my sympathy and I know
the sympathy of all of the Members of the Senate and the people of the
United States of America on the tragic losses this week at Virginia
Tech.
None of us can understand what happened in Blacksburg, VA, but all of
us recognize the profound tragedy and the loss of youth in its prime.
I learned this week that one of those losses was a Georgian by the
name of Christopher James ``Jamie'' Bishop, and I, from the floor of
the Senate, send to Pine Mountain, GA, my sympathy on the tragic loss
of Jamie.
Jamie, who was passionate about his art and an avid amateur
photographer, grew up in Pine Mountain, GA, and was valedictorian of
Harris County High School. He received his bachelor's degree in German
from my alma mater, the University of Georgia, and was a Fulbright
scholar at Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel, Germany. He returned
to the University of Georgia to earn his master's degree in German
linguistics.
Jamie, who was known for wearing his hair in a ponytail, had been a
German instructor at Virginia Tech since 2005. His wife, Stefanie
Hofer, is an assistant professor of German there. By all accounts,
Jamie was an intelligent, clever and passionate individual.
I am very proud as a Georgian to have known of his accomplishments,
and I send his wife Stefanie and his parents Michael and Jeri my
prayers and my hopes that they will accept our sympathy as they endure
the heartbreak of the loss of Jamie.
To the families of all of those professors, employees, and students
who lost their lives or were hurt in Blacksburg, VA, I extend my
sympathy and my deepest prayers that we will find reconciliations out
of tragedy.
____________________