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In
1n response to John Mosqueda’s editorial which
appeared in the June 6, 1999 REVIEW JOURNAL, I don’t
know whether to agree with Rev. Mosqueda or to shake
my finger and say shame on you. Granted I do not
know all of the details of the Columbine shootings
except to say that I have a son who is not unlike
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. Evil or not, there
are services in place to protect us from the
behaviors of those youngsters, but finding those
services and getting the responsible parties to help
is an act in futility.
My son, a high school sophomore, has had many years
of intervention including therapy, medication and
hospital stays; all in an effort to salvage this
otherwise bright and witty young man. Unfortunately,
the results of short term care or outpatient care
were short lived. Two years ago my son’s mother sent
him to live with myself and my wife because his
mother felt that our lifestyle would offer better
supervision and have a positive influence on his
unmanageable behaviors. We agreed. We laid down a
structure of parental supervision (my wife left her
job), clear rules, responsibilities, accountability,
consequences and rewards. Until nine months ago he
was making friends, excelling in school, attending
church, and was engaged in community service. Then
all hell broke loose.
The behaviors that caused him to leave his mothers
house were that he was brutal to his sisters, was
habitual liar, a thief, and had assaulted his
classmates. The latter two resulted in a short stay
in juvenile hall in Florida. Those same behaviors
reared their ugly heads with us. Since then, we have
sought the help of clergy, psychiatrists,
psychologists, and my son has been hospitalized four
times. The first hospitalization was at Charter
Hospital for attempted suicide, plans that he had
made to commit a homicide with a gun, self
mutilation, and the discovery that he is obsessed
with death and dismemberment. Only three weeks after
his release from Charter, he was hospitalized a
second time at Charter for attempted suicide and
self mutilation and his obsession with death and
dismemberment. Both times he was released by Charter
Hospital as no longer being a threat to himself or
others.
Clearly Charter was wrong. My son was still a threat
to himself and others. We found Olympus View
Hospital, in Salt Lake City, which had a program for
youths such as my son. Two months into his
treatment, we discovered that our insurance carrier
would fund only one of those months. Though his
treatment was not complete, we ran out of assets and
our insurance company had cut off all funding for
his treatment. Though Olympus View cautioned that he
is still dangerous, my son was discharged to myself
and my wife, before he could be fully stabilized.
Olympus View Hospital discovered that our son is
paranoid schizophrenic and is indeed a danger to
himself and to those around him. In spite of our
best efforts, our worst fears were borne out on May
28, 1999 when my son assaulted my wife with a
butcher knife he had taken from the kitchen, in an
attempted homicide. The L.V. Metro offered to take
my son into custody for prosecution or have him
admitted for psychiatric evaluation. We chose to
have him evaluated. He was later admitted to Desert
Willow Hospital, a State fun psychiatric hospital
here in Las Vegas.
Desert Willow offers both short and long term
psychiatric care and they have the beds and funding
available to provide service for my son. We hoped
that Desert Willow would provide the help that my
son desperately needs through their long term
program, something that the criminal system does not
provide. In spite of his history of assaults, self
mutilation, obsession with death and dismemberment,
unpredictable behavior, that short term
hospitalization and out patient services are
ineffective, and the availability of long term help
for him at Desert Willow, the psychiatric staff at
Desert Willow is determined to discharge this young
man on June 8, 1999. The staff at Desert Willow
contends that my son is stable and that he poses no
threat to himself or others.
We contacted L.V. Metro for help in keeping this
young man off our streets until he gets help. We
were informed that it is not likely that any judge
will hear the criminal case against my son because
he is on medication for schizophrenia.
The result is that Desert Willow Hospital plans to
release an unstable young man, not unlike Eric
Harris, and Dyland Klebold, into our community.
Whether my son is evil or not, Desert Willow
operates the very facilities and has the funding
that could help this troubled young man acquire the
skills that he needs to lead a productive life.
Unfortunately, this young man has been refused.
It has been said that the massacre at Columbine High
School could have been avoided had the parents of
Eric Harris and Dyland Klebold sought intervention
for their sons. Perhaps they did and were refused.
Charles A. Durning
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