It is inevitable, as has been the buzz around the water cooler, that someone will eventually bring suit against those persons believed to be responsible for not taking more effective measures to stop the initial and/or second round of shootings on the day of the tragedy or perhaps even prevent them all together. Whether it was by preventing the purchase of the handguns used in the shootings or the removal of the mentally ill student due to his history of behavior there are debatable decisions which may have legal implications.  Recent reports, for example, indicate there was a disconnect between the reporting of the shooter’s mental health history and any type of national registry that wold have prevented someone in his state of mind from owning a handgun.  There are also reports that campus security thought they had identified the likely suspect of the shooting as a jealous boyfriend of the first young woman who was shot in the early morning hours in her dorm. 

This maelstrom of events begs the question(s), Where does the accountability lie for the criminal acts of another? What obligations does society have and, further more, to what extent can and should an academic institution reach out to detect unstable students?  What is an accepted protocol once a student has been deemed to be dangerous?  It is logical that these questions will be answered on a case by case basis, but the dialogue has been galvanized by the recent tragedy for a general strategy to maintain “normalcy” in these situations.

From a legal perspective it all begins with the concept of duty, or what legal (not moral) obligations one has to another citizen.  You then begin to assess if any such duty exists, whether there was a breach of this duty and whether the harm that occured from such a breach was reasonably foreseeable and recognized as an injury from which one can recover. 

In the posts that follow, my goal will be to start the discussion on the scenarios that are an outgrowth from the facts before, during and after the first shooting with the sincere hope that we as a society can learn from this senseless tragedy and perhaps prevent such insanity from occuring in the future.