This post is out of character for me, since it doesn’t fall anywhere under the “humor” or “sports” realms that most easily characterize my work on this website. I want to acknowledge that out of the gate, and I think it’s necessary to acknowledge that, since as a strange, semi-fictional fan of sports and other things, most of what I write lacks in seriousness. This, contrarily, is serious.
This website has strong ties to the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin. While I do not and have not personally attended the University of Texas, a number of my close friends are currently in the Master’s Program at the Steve Hicks School. In a roundabout way, it is why I live in Austin right now.
This week, there was an incident involving a threat made against the Steve Hicks School. Because of my connection with it, my platform, and lingering questions surrounding the incident’s handling, I feel it necessary to report on it and call public attention to some concerning aspects of the responses of the organizations involved.
Here’s what happened, according to information gathered from the website of the UT-Austin Police Department (UTPD), the reporting of KXAN Austin, and anonymous students at the Steve Hicks School:
- On Wednesday, a 37-year-old man who has been referred to in at least one communication as a “former student” drove to a psychiatric treatment center to request help. The UTPD Daily Crime Log indicates this center was Psychiatric Emergency Services at the Integral Care facility on Airport Boulevard in East Austin.
- From there, the man was transported to Dell Seton Medical Center, a teaching hospital affiliated with UT-Austin.
- At the hospital, the man made threats against himself and the Steve Hicks School. Specifically, as reported by KXAN, “he is quoted in the arrest affidavit as saying (that) he would ‘go on a shooting spree at the UT School of Social Work and eventually a cop would have to kill him.’” No context is given for this quote in the KXAN article, leaving it open to interpretations including, but not limited to, that he expressed fear of doing this, that he expressed an intention to do this, and that he expressed a desire to do this (these possible interpretations are my own).
- The man was released from Dell Seton overnight Wednesday night. KXAN has reported that the affidavit states he was deemed to not “meet the requirements for psychiatric commitment.”
- Upon notification of the man’s release, UTPD “immediately began directed patrols around the School of Social Work and searched for (the man) on campus.”
- Thursday morning at 7:38 AM, police found the man at his home in Pflugerville, a close suburb of Austin. He was arrested for the felony charge of terroristic threat.
- Currently, the man is being held at the Travis County Correctional Complex with a bond of $100,000.
- Sources have indicated that Thursday afternoon, approximately eight hours after the man was arrested, the dean of the Steve Hicks School called a meeting with students currently in class in which he and a representative of UTPD informed students of the incident. Sources indicate this was the first time any student in the Steve Hicks School was notified of the incident, despite many having arrived at the building prior to 7:38 AM, when the arrest was made. Sources further indicate that students attending the meeting were asked not to tell anyone else what they had learned.
- Sources have confirmed that at 6:18 PM, more than ten hours after the arrest was made, an email was sent from the UT Safety Alert system informing students of the incident. Sources indicate this email was sent to the entire student body, and that it was redirected to some students’ spam folders. A short while earlier, at 6:07 PM, the dean of the Steve Hicks School sent their own email to students of the Steve Hicks School addressing the incident.
Many facets of the incident and its handling are troubling, but before I delve into those, let me make clear that I do not intend these criticisms as condemnations of UTPD, the Steve Hicks School, or Dell Seton Medical Center. The outlining of these troubling aspects is not intended to cast blame on any party. Rather, it is done in the hopes that these aspects will be addressed. If they are not publicly addressed within the next few days, The Barking Crow will seek comment from all three organizations in an attempt to provoke changes that avoid such happenings in, God forbid, any similar incident in the future, or at the very least understand what caused these aspects to occur this week.
A man sought psychiatric help. He wound up in jail, charged with a felony.
As was noted above, little context is, at this point, publicly available when it comes to the threat. The way it has been presented leaves it open to interpretation. Regardless, it is troubling that a man sought psychiatric help and, in a matter of less than a day, was arrested on a felony charge.
This may be a result of mental healthcare and criminal justice problems of a scope extending beyond Dell Seton and UTPD, but regardless, it is troubling, and it sets a precedent that figures to discourage anyone with similar thoughts from seeking psychiatric help.
The man made a terroristic threat but was released from the hospital. Now, he could be bailed out should anyone post bail.
If the man is a threat to carry out the attack he described, it seems he should be held without bail. If the man was a threat to himself and/or others, he should not have been discharged. I am not a legal, criminal justice, or mental health expert, so there is likely a lot I’m missing here. Given that much of the populace shares my lack of expertise in these areas, though, an explanation seems in order. The response of UTPD implies they interpreted this as a credible threat. Yet, the criminal justice system is allowing him bail, and Dell Seton allowed him to walk free.
Students arrived at the Steve Hicks School prior to the arrest being made, with no knowledge the threat had been made.
It appears the University of Texas withheld information from students that was relevant to their safety. Again, we don’t know all the details, but this is, as was said, troubling. Students should have been informed so they could make their own decision on whether to attend class Thursday. This applies to staff, of course, as well, but no information is, as of this point, available to The Barking Crow on when and how and to what degree staff were informed.
Students continued to go about their day at the Steve Hicks School uninformed about the incident after the man had been arrested.
It is unclear why it took between eight and twelve hours for students to learn of the threat made against their place of study.
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This is an ongoing story, and this post will be updated as updates become available. My goal in publishing these concerns is to put them into the public discourse, because ultimately, students at the Steve Hicks School and all University of Texas students and staff deserve answers to questions surrounding these troubling aspects of the situation’s handling.
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that the dean of the Steve Hicks School sent their email to their students addressing the incident after the school-wide email was sent. This was incorrect, as the dean’s email preceded the school-wide email by eleven minutes.
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1/13: Update
A final update on this. We did end up reaching out to the Steve Hicks School, Ascension Seton, and UTPD. Ascension Seton did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The Steve Hicks School replied promptly and explained they had not been notified until shortly before beginning their own communication to students. UTPD was very helpful, though they would not make official comment on what was, at the time, an ongoing investigation. Through that dialogue, they suggested I look at official records related to the alleged perpetrator. I won’t delve too much into that (feel free to contact me if you’re interested), but it became clear that this is a story beyond our capabilities of covering adequately. Because of that, we’re putting it to rest. It’s possible that there will be a point when we’ll have the resources to give a story on mental health, the criminal justice system, and threats of mass shootings the attention it deserves. If that does come to pass, this will be a part of it. We still do hope to see coverage on these issues from the local Austin media.
