Fear, Lockdowns and Barriers to Student Freedom

April 19, 2007 — -- In 1999, when two troubled teenagers went on a rampage killing 12 students and teachers at Columbine High School, national pandemonium ensued.

High schools went into lockdown, every scribbled note left in a locker was scrutinized and, say civil libertarians, there was a chilling effect on personal freedoms.

After another loner, Seung-Hui Cho, slaughtered 32 people at Virginia Tech this week, educators warned that the post-Columbine effect might forever change the freedom of intellectual thought that has been the hallmark of America's open campuses.

"There tends to be a reactive feeding frenzy, and there is nothing as horrible as what went on at Virginia Tech," said David Osher, managing director of the Washington, D.C.-based American Institutes for Research.

"There are things that can be preventative without moving into the type of overreaction that we saw post-Columbine and post-9/11," he said. "Everyone in a trench coat is not out to shoot people."

"If we try to treat our college campuses like we treat our airports, it's not going to be a solution," he said.

As the tragedy at Virginia Tech unfolds, authorities have learned the killer left a trail of clues: a monosyllabic relationship with his roommates, allegations of stalking, macabre writings and talk of suicide.