Five months after a deranged student killed 32 students and faculty at Virginia Tech, an Ohio University student with a documented history of mental health concerns drove five miles down the street and stabbed his father 40 times. A few questions come to mind.
1. What OU administrator made the judgment that it was safe for the OU community to have Bebb on campus?
2. What criteria did this administrator use to make his or her decision to put our lives in Bebb's hands?
3. Did that administrator warn any other OU administrators, the OU police, or OU faculty in Bebb's department or elsewhere about the heightened risk Bebb posed?
4. If so, what precautions did these officials take?
5. If not, why the hell not?
6. How many more people with a documented history of mental health concerns are wandering around the OU campus?
7. Who the hell are they?
While OU brings a new SWAT team in the back door, it welcomes students with a documented history of mental health concerns in the front door. It is one thing for OU administrators to permit such people onto campus. It is quite another thing for them to take no compensatory precautions. To quote Vince Lombardi, What the hell is going on around here?Lyn Bowman is a research associate in the biological sciences department.
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Letter to the Editor
