|
Cho's records given to panel
14/06/2007 21:25 - (SA)
Sue Lindsey
Virginia - Relatives of the student gunman who killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus turned over his mental health records to a gubernatorial panel investigating the shootings, the panel's chairperson said on Thursday.
Federal privacy laws governing health and student information had prevented the panel from reviewing Seung-Hui Cho's records.
Panel chairperson W Gerald Massengill had said he would go to court if necessary to obtain them.
"This is not all the records that we will need," Massengill said on Thursday. "But this is certainly some that we felt a strong need to take a look at."
University spokesperson Larry Hincker said the family turned over Cho's mental health records on Tuesday. Massengill said they were delivered to the panel on Wednesday, but that he had not examined them.
Virginia Tech officials had been in negotiations with the family since the panel met in Blacksburg in May, Hincker said.
Panel members have expressed frustration at state and school officials, who have said they couldn't turn over Cho's medical, mental health or scholastic records because federal privacy laws protect people even after death.
Cho was born and raised in South Korea, but moved with his family to the United States in 1992 at age 8.
- AP
|
News
