Mental Health

The former head of a Virginia Tech counseling center accidentally packed mental health files of student gunman Seung-hui Cho with personal documents when he left his job more than a year before Cho killed 32 people on the Richmond campus, a lawyer said. In a statement to the Associated Press, attorney Ed McNelis said his client, Dr. Robert Miller, placed Cho's records in a box in February 2006. He said Miller opened it for the first time last week while searching for material that could be relevant to a lawsuit filed by families for two of the slain students in the April 2007 shooting.

Irritability in childhood has been suspected of being a potential symptom of depression. A new study confirms this link. Researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health questioned the parents of 631 teenagers, whose average age was 13.8, about irritability in their children. Twenty years later, the same children, now adults, were assessed for mood and anxiety disorders. The people who were irritable kids were more likely to be adults with depression or anxiety. However, irritability in adolescence did not predict later development of bipolar disorder or other serious mental health disorders.

A toddler allegedly shot by his mother remained in critical condition Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said family spokesman Eddie Jones. A hospital spokeswoman confirmed that the unidentified boy remained alive. Jones said the 1 1/2 -year- old's name is Michael Jr., but he did not provide his last name. The mother, 25-year-old LaTonya Dixon, was being held at a Los Angeles County jail in lieu of more than $1-million bail. On Saturday, police said, Dixon shot her two sons, killing 5-year-old Christian and wounding the younger boy before standing on her balcony and threatening to kill herself.

A federal judge has ruled that a white man accused in a 1966 Ku Klux Klan slaying is competent to stand trial. Ernest Avants, 71, was indicted in 2000 on charges of aiding and abetting the murder of Ben Chester White. U.S. District Judge William H. Barbour Jr. in Jackson set a Feb. 24 trial date for Avants, who suffered a stroke last year. Prosecutors believe the June 10, 1966, killing might have been part of a plot to lure the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to the area so he could be assassinated.

It isn't every day that law enforcement authorities will walk away from someone who is armed and agitated. But that's what Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies from the Antelope Valley did last week when a 28-year-old man was threatening to kill himself at Sycamore Flats Campground near Valyermo. Deputies arrived to find the man pointing a rifle at his head and ordered him to drop it. When he didn't, deputies fired several shotgun-propelled beanbag blasts to force his surrender.

A 75-year-old man was committed to the county's mental health ward for observation Friday after trying to launch a garbage-strewn, rickety and unseaworthy sailboat into the waters at Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard, authorities said. Harbor officials, police and boatyard workers had repeatedly warned Robert Davenport, whose home is his 1979 Plymouth sedan, not to set sail in the 26-foot "Anni Rose" because it would sink. About 9 a.m.

The subject of Oliver Rheinfurth's depression comes up, and almost instantly tears flood the eyes of Ursula Rheinfurth, his mother. "It was a very, very difficult time," Ursula said, her voice filled with concern. "I didn't know what to do." Moments later, the subject turns to Oliver's recovery, his return to normal life, the golf course and his appearance in the U.S. Amateur Championship beginning Monday at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y. The tears turn to laughter.

In 1993, 15% to 17% of Los Angeles County Jail inmates--approximately 3,400 prisoners--were classified as mentally ill. The jail had become the "dumping ground" for the mentally ill, the hospital of last resort. Since then, the county has made significant improvements by coordinating resources, contracting with private care providers and developing programs that ensure mental health professionals and law enforcement are working together. However, there is clearly much more work to be done.

Four Orange County school districts will receive funding for mental health programs targeted for children in kindergarten through the third grade this year. Gov. Pete Wilson announced Tuesday that funding for the Early Mental Health Initiative will reach $15 million in grants for the 1998-99 school year. The following Orange County school districts will share in that amount: Centralia, $44,000; Fountain Valley, $72,000; Newport-Mesa Unified, $36,000; and Westminster, $70,000.

"While most presidents and presidents' wives think it is time to rest on their laurels, she has surfaced fighting." -- Actress Mariette Hartley, introducing former First Lady Rosalynn Carter Rosalynn Carter is 70 now; almost two decades have whizzed by since she and Jimmy Carter occupied the White House. "I thought when Jimmy lost the election, we'd go home and we'd be bored to death the rest of our lives," she recalls with a laugh. "But we haven't had time."