<p>Intellectually, I agree with everyone saying this guy should not have to give up his job and that the whole thing should probably have stayed buried since the man appears to have gone on to be a law abiding citizen.</p>
<p>Emotionally, if I learned someone I knew had slaughtered his entire family (I can only imagine the terror experienced by them as they realized what was happening), I would probably be somewhat afraid of him because I would wonder if he could be similarly stressed in the future. Unfair perhaps, but if I’m being honest…I wonder if people who actually know him and are in his life in any capacity have any of those feelings now that the cat is out of the bag.</p>
<p>Not only that, but the fear-based prejudicial reactions of many on this thread is precisely one reason why employers doing hiring aren’t allowed to ask for history of past mental illnesses unless they can prove a compelling case for why having the mental illness would seriously impair the individual from fulfilling his/her duties for that particular job.</p>
<p>That doesn’t seem to be the case considering his life after institutionalization and release.</p>
<p>How else would his employers be able to find out about his past considering he wasn’t convicted because he was deemed legally insane by the authorities at the time he committed his offense as a minor?</p>
<p>He can honestly and legally say he was not convicted of that particular crime for the question “Were you ever convicted of a felony?” type question. </p>
<p>His arrest records may be sealed/expunged due to the fact he was 15 at the time and thus, a minor. </p>
<p>His time under institutionalization may be governed by HIPAA medical records confidentiality act and an employer would be foolhardy to dig for history of mental illnesses due to breach of labor discrimination laws/EEOC policies meant to protect past/current sufferers of mental illness from employment discrimination. </p>
<p>Once someone has completed their sentence or in this case…has completed his mental health treatments in a psychiatric institution, he has the same legal rights to change his name and otherwise put his past behind him as the rest of us.</p>
<p>I would love to hear from some people who have been his students. I wonder what he’s like as a person and as a prof.</p>
<p>I feel so very ambivalent about this one. I give him credit for making something of his life, and I wonder if he’s really cured. I wonder if he really had schizophrenia in the first place or if other factors such as substances were involved. Do people deserve a chance to change? Yes. Would I be afraid being around him? Perhaps.</p>
<p>So now that the story is out, has he made any kind of statement? Is he SORRY? I mean, if I killed three people even by “accident” (if we are saying mental illness makes it less “intentional”) I would bend over backwards to let the world know how sorry I was about it. </p>
<p>Sometimes when a person takes out his or her whole family we forget about all the others who have been affected–parents, grandparents, siblings, classmates, coworkers, friends. Where is JSJ’s contrition over what he did?</p>
<p>sally, re: #68, yes, that sorta relates to a post I wrote earlier that another direction he could have gone in instead of concealing his past, was to engage in more contrition, as well as possibly using his life experience to influence others, such as prisoners, or those with mental illness…to make a difference in that way.</p>
<p>garland, that’s just it…it is not so much the legal definitions of insanity, but more that a person is responsible in some way for having killed three people, even if not legally being found guilty or serving time. It can’t be totally erased just because he was declared insane when it happened.</p>
<p>Interesting that one reason he gave for killing his father is that he was not allowed to grow long hair, and now he sports a ponytail that extends to his fanny.</p>
<p>Who other than our legal institutions has the right to determine whether someone has sufficiently paid their debt to society? </p>
<p>Does public opinion have a place in making such determinations…especially considering how variable and fickle it can be depending on the different opinions and personal fears/prejudices of each individual who make up that public?</p>
<p>Employer: Why didn’t you finish high school on time? What were you doing from the time you were 15 until you started college (what?) six or seven years later?</p>
<p>I am going to guess that you have never had to deal with a mentally ill family member going through a psychotic break episode when they are completely divorced from reality. I have been through it… just because you “can’t wrap your head around it” doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, I think it just means it is not in the realm of your personal experience (therefore can’t be true?). The brain can succumb to illness just as any other organ in the body can – not sure why this is so hard for people to understand. And this happens all the time to people who are NOT committing any kind of crime, so have no reason to “manipulate psychiatric tests” to make it appear that they are having a break with reality. In fact, most people in that situation are desperately trying to accomplish the opposite, to make everyone else think they are perfectly normal. But that is also very, very difficult for them to do – you just can’t hide it if you think someone has placed listening devices in your shoes (so you throw all your shoes away) or something like that. There is a difference between that kind of mentally ill where reality is so distorted due to some kind of brain chemistry or damage, and the person who just lacks a conscience and commits crimes because they think they can get away with it and don’t care who they hurt.</p>
<p>intparent, maybe I did not express what I meant so well. I understand the severity of schizophrenia and a psychotic break and that indeed it is “true.” And I know that not all mental illnesses are the same! </p>
<p>I was trying to say that, in my opinion, anyone who murders a bunch of people, isn’t mentally healthy. They may not all suffer from the same mental illness, but they have some sort of mental imbalance to carry out such acts.</p>