[rdl6989]

Why wasn’t he sent to a mental hospital long ago? They knew for years the kid was a danger.

[Mrs. Don-o]

It was over 35 years ago that the courts made it impossible to involuntarily admit a person over 18 to a psychiatric hospital, unless they had actually done somthing potentially fatal to themselves or others. You really are supposed to wait until they hurt somebody.

I was a volunteer at a soup kitchen that had all kinds of borderline people. Oh, the stories I could tell. But you couldn't have them committed. The police would pick up women who were raving bonkers, and bring them over to the overnight shelter run by the (very courageous) Catholic nuns.