Many families don't have insurance, or have policies that don't cover mental-health care. Legal Concerns School administrators aren't on any surer ground when it comes to questioning students' dress or speech. Columbine High School students who knew the assailants there have reported that they wore swastikas on their clothing and made videos of guns in a school video-production class. Those actions could prompt intervention by administrators on the grounds that those kinds of expression threaten or harass other students, said Philip G. Villaume, an Edina, Minn., lawyer and author who conducts seminars for educators on eliminating bias and valuing diversity. But Colorado has no such law, according to the state education department.
Individual districts devise their own policies.
Some students and civil rights groups have argued that such interventions can run afoul of the First Amendment. The student's family is arguing that the drawing is protected by free-speech guarantees. Julie Underwood, the general counsel for the National School Boards Association in Alexandria, Va., said her organization had filed a brief in the case arguing that schools should be allowed to regulate hate speech in the interest of improving school climate and providing a safe place for all students. Staying Prepared Scott Decker, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri in St. Louis, said he believes school shootings are still so uncommon that they can't be accurately predicted. Instead, Mr. Decker said, schools should concentrate on improving school climate, student attendance, and student accountability.