NBC receives mail from shooter

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by somerfrost

You simply don't know what you are talking about...nor do many of the TV talking heads. There is a legal process to commit someone...the paperwork which they speak of is simply part of said process. If you read (and comprehend) my earlier post, I tried to make it clear...you can't hospitalize someone against their will without certain legal criteria being met, and hospital personnel must obey the law like everyone else...if the law says they must be discharged then there is no choice! Reporters, unless they have a background in MH, don't understand this...obviously, you don't either! As a MH professional, I have done paperwork to hospitalize patients, worked with MH patients in the hospital, and worked with the legal system regarding all aspects of hospitalization. With the confidentiality laws in place today, it is quite possible that his parents had no idea concerning the extent of his psychosis, same with the school!

Somer is absolutely correct. It is nearly impossible to have someone commmitted to a mental hospital. It doesn't matter how crazy they are. A psychitarist has no legal authority to commit someone to a mental institute. The only way someone can be committed is if the person is an immiminent threat to himself or others. That means that the person would have to be making verbal threats of an imminent nature. In other words, they would have to say that they were going to either kill themselves or kill someone else to be held. Otherwise, the person cannot be held.

With regard to the two girls that he was bothering, there is no evidence that he did anything that could have given him a felony conviction. He was bothering these two girls, but there is no evidence that he threathened them in any way. He was told to leave them alone and he did. There was no felony committed.