Duncan Endorses Arizona Community College’s Suspension of Accused Gunman

Education Secretary Arne Duncan has endorsed Pima County Community College’s decision last fall to suspend Jared L. Loughner, the accused gunman in shootings on Saturday in Tucson, Ariz., that left a federal judge and five other people dead and a U.S. congresswoman among 14 people wounded. In an interview with The Washington Post, Mr. Duncan said the college had done what it could to deal with the aggressive classroom disruptions by Mr. Loughner, who dropped out after his suspension. The college said it would not consider allowing him to return without a mental-health evaluation. “If I was the chancellor of that community college,” Mr. Duncan said, “I think that would have been my response.”

Following are articles about what colleges can and should do about troubled students that The Chronicle published in the aftermath of the shootings at Virginia Tech, in 2007, and Northern Illinois University, in 2008:

An Ideology of ‘Gunism’

Virginia Tech: the Challenge of Assuring Safety

Creative Writing and the Virginia Tech Massacre

Fearing Our Students Won’t Help Them

Public Colleges Lack Funds to Help Troubled Students