From Frogtown to Radtown

Virginians know the date April 16, 2007 by heart now. That is when a mentally unstable student, Seung-Hui Cho shot 32 people and then himself on the campus of Virginia Tech. That day hits home for Virginia Tech student Brent Clinedinst.

Clinedinst feels that House Bill 752, proposed by Virginia Delegate Peace, could help to prevent similar incidents at Virginia Tech and the rest of the Commonwealth’s universities and colleges. “Although it may not have stopped things on that horrific day there’s always a chance that it could have and maybe it could potentially stop it from happening again somewhere else,” Clinedinst said.

House Bill 752 is described by the Virginia General Assembly website as “a bill to amend and reenact § 23-276.5 of the Code of Virginia and to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 23-2.2:2, relating to requiring students to provide mental health record waivers upon enrollment in an institution of higher education.”

This means that all students would need to sign a release of their mental health records to their college of choice before they would be allowed to enroll. The bill has been assigned to the committee on education.

There are many incidents of students acting violent towards their classmates or institutions of education.

Some of the most deadly include the shooting at Northern Illinois University just last year, the University of Texas at Austin shooting in 1966, and the California State University shooting in Fullerton in 1976.

A counselor at Radford University disagrees with Clinedinst. “I don’t think the law would drastically keep people safer on campus. Usually people with mental health issues are less violent than the general population. They are more likely to be a victim of a violent act than a perpetrator.”–He did not want to be named.

It is not surprising that all of these tragedies are on college campuses knowing that according to the National Alliance on Mental Health or NAMI, “mental illnesses usually strike individuals in the prime of their lives, often during adolescence and young adulthood.” NAMI also states that “early identification and treatment is of vital importance; By ensuring access to the treatment and recovery supports that are proven effective, recovery is accelerated and the further harm related to the course of illness is minimized.”

This backs up what another counselor, who also wished not to be named, at Radford University thinks about the bill. She poses a good question that needs to be thought about before this bill becomes a law,” If folks know that their records will be more open and their confidentiality violated, why would these folks enter treatment or participate fully in it to begin with?” It is not clear who will have access to these mental health records once the release is signed.

Clinedinst was also concerned about how fair this bill would be to students. He was concerned that faculty and staff wouldn’t be included in this bill. The admissions office at Radford University and the rest of the Institutions of Higher Education will have time to think the bill through and pan out all the details before requiring students to sign a waiver of their mental health records.

The bill has been tabled or set aside, and assigned to the Committee on Higher Education. It will then be reviewed at the next session of the Virginia General Assembly.

TODAYS TOP STORIES, PERSONAL AND INTERNATIONAL

Personal Top Stories:

Ava is starting to get better.

I feel that I have been slacking in my classes.  Well slacking isn’t the correct word as I am putting a lot of effort into them it’s just that I am exhausted and can’t do as well as I want or was hoping to do.  Oh well, such is life.

Bryan is now sick with what Ava had, fortunately for an adult it is more like a cold than an all out “I feel like I’m dying” sickness.

We are going to a giant family dinner at Ava’s great-grandma’s this weekend!  MMM vegetarian food-can you see the sarcasm in my text?

In more interesting Worldly News:

From CNN:

1. Oakland Raiders linebacker Cooper, NFL free agent Corey Smith and William Bleakley, a former college football player, went missing after their fishing boat capsized Saturday.

The Cooper family had been quoted saying that they would not give up hope and thus keep searching for their son, but according to Bruce Cooper, Marquis Cooper’s father, they have called off the search due to new information about the circumstances of that day.

All is not sad though, one member of the boat was found two days ago alive and for the most part healthy.  His only real problem was dehydration and being extremely tired and hungry almost to the point of hallucination.

2. Asian restaurants have always been recognized as a little over-the-top or strange by Western culture and a new restaurant that opened in Hong Kong is no exception.

Can you imagine sitting on a toilet while eating out of a toilet and looking at toilets while you do it?  This reporter can’t but apparently it’s all the rage in Hong Kong.

Take a look at this video from CNN.

Well that’s all I have time for right now… I’m trying to make this blogging a regular(every few days) thing.