ASU students may have to reveal mental health

ASU might require students to disclose their mental health histories as part of a slew of tough safety measures that top officials are considering after two mass killings at U.S. universities in the past year.

The proposal is one of several nationwide intended to find students with a pattern of behavior suggesting they could be a threat. There is no precedent for such disclosures in higher education as schools have long battled to protect student privacy.

At Arizona State University, the student disclosures are one of several recommendations before a committee working to upgrade campus security, said Sharon Keeler, an ASU spokeswoman.

The committee, which formed last spring after a disturbed student shot and killed 32 people at Virginia Tech, hasn't decided whether to include that particular recommendation in its final report, Keeler said.

If the mental health disclosures are endorsed, the committee still must decide how widespread the requirement should be.

"The university has made no decision in that regard," Keeler said. "We have said nothing as to what we would do, or not do."

The State Press, ASU's student newspaper, first reported the mental health disclosure proposal on Tuesday.

ASU is only the most recent institution to consider limiting student privacy rules.

Lawmakers and university administrators in other states, particularly Virginia and Florida, have pushed measures that would open students' private psychological records to schools and police.

Psychologists and university counselors have largely argued against these changes.

Mandatory disclosures of mental illnesses violate state and federal laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, said Maggie Gartner, student counseling director at Texas A&M University. It is also unclear how that information would help pinpoint which students will open fire on campus.

"What the heck is a university going to do with that information, if someone is predicted to be violent, but they've not violated the law or violated the student conduct code, or done anything untoward on campus?" Gartner said. "You can't arrest somebody for breathing."

Paul Ward, ASU's general counsel, did not return calls for comment on Tuesday. Ward is heading the committee considering the campus safety upgrades.

Privacy concerns have increasingly given way to fear of future bloodshed at schools and universities.

Last week, on Valentine's Day, that fear again became reality. A former graduate student at Northern Illinois University murdered five people, and wounded 16, in a lecture hall before committing suicide.

Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech gunman, and Steven Kazimierczak, at Northern Illinois, both had a documented history of mental illness.

Multiple investigations of the Virginia Tech killings concluded that university counselors need to release private psychological information about mentally ill students more often.

The confidentiality of students' counseling sessions already has limits.

Counselors are required to notify law enforcement, and in some cases students' parents or guardians, when a patient poses a threat to themselves or others.

Martha Christiansen, ASU's student counseling director, said her office decides when to disclose concerns, and who receives them, on a case-by-case basis.

"Every year there are some situations. I wouldn't say it's frequent," Christiansen said, "but it's not rare."

Those include child abuse cases.

About 3 percent of the students at ASU's main campus in Tempe receive counseling each school year, Christiansen said.

More than 50,000 of ASU's 64,000 students take their classes at the main campus, which means about 1,500 students seek psychological help.