Student Making Threats Against My Daughter

SodiumFree
Fri, 21 Sep 2012 15:26:24 +0000

Thanks, jym626, I agree with what you said.

But some of calla1’s statements are, I think, incorrect. For specific example, she (he?) said that “It is not their [mental health professionals’] job to determine how valid the threat is.” I think that in fact, it is the therapist’s job to use professional judgment to determine if a threat is in fact a serious one. For example, my guess is that clients tell their therapists all the time that they are so angry at a spouse or other family member that they want to kill them. In many cases this is obvious hyperbole, and a therapist would not even consider reporting it.

calla1 also said “it is illegal for these professionals to delay a report out of concern for potentially ‘labeling’ or traumatizing an innocent person.” I wonder where this came from. It does not sound like statutory language; maybe there is some case law to this effect?