Did school drop the ball in theater attack?

Associated Press

DENVER

In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy five years ago, the University of Colorado and other schools across the U.S. created “threat assessment teams” to identify and take action against students who might turn violent. Now, in the aftermath of the movie-theater rampage in Aurora, some are wondering whether the system broke down.

A Denver TV station reported this week that a university psychiatrist was so alarmed by graduate student James E. Holmes’ behavior that she tried to bring him to the attention of the school’s threat-assessment team more than a month before the attack, but the group never met to talk about him because he already had taken steps to drop out.

Holmes, 24, is charged with murdering 12 people and wounding 58 in the July 20 rampage a few miles from the Aurora campus after methodically stockpiling guns and ammunition for months.

“If the argument is because he was no longer a student, he was no longer their problem, they are absolutely incorrect,” said Larry Barton, a threat consultant and professor at American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa. “Any court and any victim’s family would have an argument that the school acted with indifference. I hope they have a very compelling answer to why they did what they did.”

University Chancellor Don Elliman repeatedly has said the school did all it could with regard to Holmes. He and other university officials have refused to discuss any specifics, citing privacy laws and a judge’s gag order. The university would not say whether staff members had any concerns about Holmes or whether police ever were alerted to him.

On Friday the school announced it had hired former U.S. Attorney Robert N. Miller to conduct a review of the university’s procedures and actions in dealing with Holmes.

KMGH-TV and the Denver Post, citing sources they did not identify, said police never were contacted.

It’s not clear what alarmed the psychiatrist, Dr. Lynne Fenton, or whether she even treated him. But she helped found the school’s Behavioral Evaluation and Threat Assessment Team in 2010.

The team’s members are drawn from the counseling center, the faculty, the housing and student services departments and campus police. It consults with police, the university’s legal team and mental-health services.

It doesn’t have the power itself to suspend or expel students or to force anyone to get mental-health care. But it can refer students for voluntary care or school discipline and report threats to the authorities, the university said.

The idea of such teams is to bring all the warning signs together in one place.

Even if the Colorado team had convened and police investigated, it’s unclear whether any violence could have been prevented.