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Colleges Apply Lessons From Shootings

Many rethink privacy concerns as they assess risky students

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 29, 2008 11:00 AM CDT

(Newser) – In the wake of shootings on college campuses, administrators around the nation are forming threat-assessment groups and rethinking policies about sharing information on troubled students, the AP reports. "If a student is a danger to himself or others, all the privacy concerns go out the window,” said an administrator at the University of Kentucky, whose panel of administrators, police, and mental health officials meets twice a month.

The panel can order a student to attend counseling or expel him. Other schools that have formed such groups, especially after the Virginia Tech massacre, are Boston College, the University of Utah, and University of Chicago-Illinois, the AP notes. "You've got to be way ahead of the game, so to speak, expect what may be coming," said a campus police official at UK.

Bookbags are left outside West Ambler Johnson Hall, the suspected site of the first shootings, on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va., Monday, April 16, 2007.
Bookbags are left outside West Ambler Johnson Hall, the suspected site of the first shootings, on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Va., Monday, April 16, 2007.   (AP Photo/The Roanoke Times, Eric Brady)
The wake of former student Daniel O'Neil, Monday, April 23, 2007. O'Neil was one of the victims in last week's shootings at Virginia Tech.
The wake of former student Daniel O'Neil, Monday, April 23, 2007. O'Neil was one of the victims in last week's shootings at Virginia Tech.   (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Virginia Tech students gather in front of the War Memorial Chapel to mourn their fellow students, Monday, April 16, 2007, in Blacksburg, Va.
Virginia Tech students gather in front of the War Memorial Chapel to mourn their fellow students, Monday, April 16, 2007, in Blacksburg, Va.   (AP Photo/The Roanoke Times, Sam Dean)
Law enforcement officers are assembled outside Norris Hall during a lock down on the Virginia Tech Campus in Blacksburg, Va., Monday, April 16, 2007.
Law enforcement officers are assembled outside Norris Hall during a lock down on the Virginia Tech Campus in Blacksburg, Va., Monday, April 16, 2007.   (AP Photo/The Roanoke Times, Eric Brady)
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