Profile of a School Shooter: Ingredient 9 - Freedom of Information Meets Privacy Laws

The United States has very complicated privacy laws. Often those in authority are not allowed to share information with one another. The court might not be allowed to notify the school of a problem with a student, nor can the school notify law enforcement about a problem if it is outside of the scope of the law. The teachers and staff aren't always allowed to talk among themselves about a student or compare notes to see if the other teachers have seen similar behavior. Even if a principal is aware of a problem, he can't always warn the other teachers.

Studies have been done where teachers have been fed information about a particular students performance ahead of time. In some cases they were told that students performed well above average on tests, when they were actually poor performers. On the other hand a child that was presented to a teacher as a "problem child" could be in every other case a model student, but this specific teacher saw them exactly as they were expecting to see them. The teachers consistently graded students based not on performance but on their perceptions of the child. Because of these certain information must be kept private, so that children are not judged unnecessarily.

We saw the problem with the inability to share information most graphically after the Virginia Tech shootings. A lot of people had the information, but none of them were allowed to share it with others until it crossed over into a criminal investigation.

While court records are public information, that does not apply if a person is under the age of 18. Which was true in most cases of school shootings.

In the United States we walk a fine line. If we share the information we are violating someone's right to privacy, but if we don't there can be serious consequences.

So where do we draw the line between a persons right to privacy and the public's right to be protected?

This could be remedied by collecting the information in a place that is not accessible to the teachers or staff working with the children. A third party resource such as a police officer or division. This person should be someone who is trained in psychology, and can understand red flags when they see them. If they see a red flag, they could follow up with the other students, parents, teachers and authorities in a non-invasive way. These professionals could then follow up with recommendations to the proper authorities.