Sarah Seltzer: Did the University of Colorado Release James Holmes?

Did the University of Colorado Release James Holmes from its Watch before Looking at Him? Last year, when a first-year graduate student found himself "very distracted because of many reasons," he wrote to Yahoo! Answers for help: "I cannot continue with this anymore before I have any mental problem. Please help." Yahoo's answer: "Different schools have different policies. You can call the Registrar, or you can call your counselor. Sorry, but I don't have magic powers. Yes, I tend to think higher education is not for you." We might expect such irresponsible indifference from an online answer mill, but from everything we've been hearing,the first year graduate student at the University of Colorado Denver, who went on a murder spree last Friday at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises," killing 12 and wounding 57, received no better guidance from a major and respected university. The picture we're getting is of a young man who was increasingly isolated and strange in his actions, darting in and out of class without speaking to anyone, and unable to function academically. His horrendous destruction, bizarre appearance, delusional identification, and his near catatonic appearance at his first court appearance, suggest that James Homes has been suffering from psychotic illness. Data from last year's "Consortium Mental Health and Counseling Study," conducted at Penn State, confirmed what most of us have already sensed: Higher education today is extremely stressful.