WASHINGTON, June 13 Privacy concerns and limited access to mental healthcare may have played a role in the massacre at Virginia Tech University, a U.S. panel said Wednesday.
In a report to U.S. President George W. Bush, the panel said education officials, healthcare providers, law enforcement officials and others often don't know when they can legitimately communicate information about potentially dangerous people and that may have a chilling effect on information sharing.
"We repeatedly heard reports of 'information silos' within educational institutions and among educational staff, mental health providers and public safety officials that impede appropriate information sharing," the report said. The report -- released by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings -- said the mentally ill often don't get timely counseling and treatment. It said restrictions on information sharing often allow the mentally ill to acquire guns.
More than one year before he went on a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, Cho Seung-hui was the focus of a harassment complaint to campus police. Cho killed 32 people at the college April 16 before taking his own life.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
