Althouse: The new era begins.

December 18, 2012

The new era begins.

"Maryland police say a high school student was committed to a hospital's psychiatric ward after classmates reported feeling threatened and his parents said he had access to weapons."

Compare: "The gunman who slaughtered 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school may have snapped because his mother was planning to commit him to a psychiatric facility...."

25 comments:

kentuckyliz said...: Better to be a world famous rampage killer than to end up receiving the mental health treatment you so desperately need.; 12/18/12, 8:21 PM
harrogate said...: oh Lord. what could go wrong.; 12/18/12, 8:25 PM
chickelit said...: Good for the cops for withholding the kid's name. That will drive tweeters, news junkies and other "famemakers" crazy.; 12/18/12, 8:32 PM
Lawyer Mom said...: "Committed" sounds deceptively positive. But when has it not?; 12/18/12, 8:34 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: The good news will be if they cast a big enough net, Ritmo will be no more.; 12/18/12, 8:36 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: A era indeed: LONG LIVE LAWYERS

"Police say the victim was close to two different lit and controlled intersections, but chose to step out into the middle of traffic, which would clearly put him at fault.

However, because Rowles was believed to be under the influence of marijuana, Washington State law says he is technically at fault, according to police.

While it may now be legal to smoke marijuana in the state of Washington, police say it is never legal to smoke it and then get behind the wheel."

The THC smokers wanted it, now we shall give it to them good and hard and forever.

I only mention this because after thinking today for some unknown reason about the recent Althouse post regarding the auto accident running a stop light, I thought about another Althouse post from many moons ago regarding a driver who drove over a hill, was sun-blinded for two seconds, and killed a person walking across the road.

Or something like that.; 12/18/12, 8:38 PM
pm317 said...: oh Lord. what could go wrong.

That was my thought too. How many false positives will there be? This is not the way to do it. The move should come from parents or caregivers and perhaps the patients themselves, not schools and other students and such.; 12/18/12, 8:48 PM
chickelit said...: The SoCal band "Suicidal Tendencies" foresaw this whole thing back in the 1980's: Institutionalized.; 12/18/12, 8:53 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/18/12, 9:07 PM
Anonymous said...: If the Fox story is correct, I'm even more amazed at Nancy Lanza's decision to keep guns in the home and who bought the ammunition?

I don't think that the reporting of threatening behavior should be left up to the parent entirely. If the parent fails to act because of various reasons, it's up to others to "do something". I'm sure he will be thoroughly assessed and at least he is now in the system. Yes, the system needs improvement, but it's better than a class full of dead students.; 12/18/12, 9:09 PM
Paul said...: "Laurel, Md., police spokesman Pete Piringer said the youth was committed Monday after threatening to harm others and after his classmates complained about his disruptive behavior. "

Notice it says he was THREATENING TO HARM CLASSMATES. See there was more to the story.; 12/18/12, 9:11 PM
cathy said...: Today at my son's high school the police took and questioned a boy who was saying that there would be a lot of deaths on Friday. Maybe this was related to the Mayan thing but the kids don't know what he meant. The boy has some emotional problems and they say he asks about death a lot in psych. But now that he's been questioned the students think he is more likely to act out. Anyway, that's school today.; 12/18/12, 10:09 PM
traditionalguy said...: In High School I was sitting next to a weird kid in study hall who started reciting the Charge of the Light Brigade..."Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die, into the valley of death rode the six hundred."

He had no friends, but he felt he could talk to me and he did. Very strange ideas came from him.

The next day we heard he had been arrested and expelled for bringing a loaded gun to school.

That was in 1961. So Schizoprenics are not a new development.

It is the voices in their heads talking to them that seem to be the problem, such as in the Son of Sam killings.; 12/18/12, 10:45 PM
Wince said...: Perhaps part of the process of petitioning a court for conservatorship for mental health reasons should entail an inquiry into the subject person's access to weapons during its pendency?; 12/19/12, 12:03 AM
Unknown said...: My younger brother made some comments, while in junior high school and being bullied for being awkward and withdrawn--maybe a little aspbergery--that he understood what the shooters in Colubine might have felt-- before the public learned that the shooters were just sociopaths. He was expelled the next day. My parents were put through hell knowing that it was all BS, and my sensitive and inquiring little brother never really recovered.

So I guess the bullies get to harass those that can't really defend themselves, and at the slightest amount of pushback, the bullies can see something and say something and compound the bullying.

I hope the meek truly inherit the earth.; 12/19/12, 1:39 AM
Sam said...: We're going to run out of room in psych wards pretty quickly if the new norm is to commit every kid who has a weird moment. There's already not enough room for the people who actually need treatment.; 12/19/12, 5:39 AM
Clyde said...: We don't have a problem with gun nuts; we have a problem with nuts with guns. Back when I was a kid, going to school in the '60s and '70s, schools weren't surrounded with chain-link fences and concertina wire, but we didn't have school shootings because we didn't have free-range nuts wandering the streets. They were institutionalized. We were safer as a society when the mentally ill were off the streets. The shooters in Arizona, Colorado, Virginia, Oregon and Connecticut all were clearly mentally ill, and back in the day, they would have been locked up when they first started acting psychotic.; 12/19/12, 6:53 AM
Aridog said...: Lawyer Mom said...

"Committed" sounds deceptively positive...

That's because it is definitely "deceptive." Don't know about Maryland, but in my state, IIRC, he's detained only up to 10 days [involuntary police commitment] while his case is reviewed. If he behaves he could be out in 3 or 4 days. If a court orders further "treatment" it will be for 90 days and re-evaluation in court. If he resists change, but bluffs well, in a worst case, he will be back on the street within 100 days or so.

Indeed: what could go wrong.; 12/19/12, 8:46 AM
Peter said...: What, no one's blamed violence on music yet? "What passion cannot music raise and quell?"

"... The trumpet's loud clangor
Excites us to arms
With shrill notes of anger
And mortal alarms.
The double, double, double beat
Of the thundering drum
Cries, hark! the foes come:
Charge, charge! 'tis too late to retreat ...

http://www.poetry-archive.com/d/a_song_for_st_cecilias_day.html; 12/19/12, 9:40 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Back when I was a kid, going to school in the '60s and '70s, schools weren't surrounded with chain-link fences and concertina wire,

Graduated high school in 68. Our school was brand new because the population of the Bay Area kept growing so fast that they couldn't build schools fast enough. The students could easily come and go. We did have a chain link fence around the football and fields area as well as around the Olympic size swimming pool and diving pool area. Mainly to keep other people, not students, from wandering in.

Our school had a Rifle Club. It is in the yearbook, all of them posing with their guns. The guys and one gal were mostly kids of the local ranchers and farmers. They had competition shooting between schools as well. No one thought it at all strange or dangerous. Most of those same guys were also on the Golf Team. Yes....our school had an actual sport of golf for P.E. classes.

Was there violence in schools. Hell, yes. In one junior high school the biggest fear was getting knifed in the walkways going to or from class. It happened several times. Gangs.....not a new development.; 12/19/12, 11:00 AM
Alex said...: But of course George Zimmerman is the most dangerous man in America.; 12/19/12, 12:55 PM
Alex said...: Skittles are the food of saints.; 12/19/12, 12:55 PM
Anonymous said...: Some mentally ill persons will commit violent acts; therefore it is necessary to incarcerate all mentally ill persons who MIGHT commit these acts.

You do not know -- nor can anyone know -- who will and who will NOT commit such an act.

Some "SANE" persons commit violent acts; therefore it is necessary to incarcerate all sane persons who MIGHT commit these acts.

If you prove someone's arguments to be lies; then it is no ad hominem to call that person a liar.
Likewise, if you prove someone's arguments to be MONSTROUS and amoral; then it is no ad hominem to call that person a MONSTER.

ANN, you are a MONSTER.

YOU should be locked away from saner people .... forever.; 12/19/12, 1:50 PM
Aridog said...: barribarri said...

Some mentally ill persons will commit violent acts; therefore it is necessary to incarcerate all mentally ill persons who MIGHT commit these acts.

You do not know -- nor can anyone know -- who will and who will NOT commit such an act.

Some "SANE" persons commit violent acts; therefore it is necessary to incarcerate all sane persons who MIGHT commit these acts.

Now that is one scary scenario...and v-e-r-y reminiscent of the old Soviet system.

You disagree with Party positions Tovarich? Fine, to the Asylum with you.; 12/19/12, 1:55 PM
bridgecross said...: Today I put swiss on my sandwich, instead of american cheese.

A New Era begins!; 12/20/12, 8:14 AM