yoikes -- i can't imagine having to evaluate my students' mental and emotional states on that kind of level based on what they write for me... i would hope colleges would understand that it's going to take a lot more than scrutinizing student writing to find the kids with real issues -- one piece (or even a series) of dark and violent and disturbed writing does not a psycho-killer make.
I agree with you, and so does this guy.
thanks for that link. i was wondering if he'd show up to comment on this issue at all -- or any number of other professional horror/gore/fright writers.
what this whole situation shows us is how nigh impossible it is to do anything about a college student in these matters -- systems aren't in place that allow key people to talk to one another about this (cops -- local and campus; parents; teachers; RAs; school and other mental health personnel), and we cannot force an "adult" to go to counseling or take any other action if we think something is wrong.
i certainly don't want any one of those groups of people to have the ability individually to get a student committed, and i have issues with the idea of some huge database on everyone, noting each of their potentially "unsettling" moments -- but as a community, i wish there were more options for working with/for students like cho.
for instance, there's all this debate about whether or not cho's record of mental issues should have disqualified him from being able to obtaining a gun. there's a discrepancy between how the state views his record, and how the feds do, and how each might have handled his wanting top buy guns -- and it sounds like there's no communication between the two levels.