@glitterbag,
Rodger's parents had tried to get help for him, he had been seen by a psychiatrist, and he was under the care of 2 psychologists just prior to the shooting. He hadn't slipped under the radar--he made sure the radar couldn't detect him.
His parents didn't realize how non-functional he was at college. He really wasn't taking classes or completing coursework for quite some time. He'd register for a few classes and then not attend them after 3 weeks. I'm not sure he even did the work for the online courses he signed up for. For at least a year, I'm under the impression he let his parents shell out money for tuition, his apartment, and his living expenses when he really wasn't attending college. He did a lot of concealing from them. He wasn't interested in getting an education any longer--he wanted to remain at college so he could try, one last time, to fulfill his fantasies of "sex and pleasure." and that's all he was obsessed with. And this was the third college he tried--he couldn't manage taking even a few courses at the first two, even while living at home. This was all an exercise in futility. His pervasive developmental and psychological problems interfered with his ability to function in a college setting--particularly if he lived away from home. And it really was time for everyone to admit that.
He lied to his father about the circumstances that led to his being beaten up and having his ankle broken. But when his father took him back home, at that point, they should have kept him at home. He was at home while his ankle healed, and he did emotionally better out of the stressful environment of college, and his parents should have refused to pay for him to continue attending. I think he was giving off enough signs at that point that he was in deep emotional trouble, and I think they should have realized that he couldn't function on his own, and they shouldn't have let him return to school, even though that would have provoked a major tantrum from their son.
I realize that Elliot cried, and pleaded, and manipulated them to let him go to school in Santa Barbara in the first place, but it clearly wasn't working out. They had no reason to believe he was becoming homicidal, but they knew he was extremely miserable and unhappy, he was calling them constantly crying, and he was starting to abuse alcohol, and they could see he was drinking too much--some of it he did in front of his mother. So, they should have been concerned about suicide, and his being overwhelmed by the social stress of being at college, and they should have realized he needed to be back at home where they could keep a better eye on him. The experiment in trying to give him more independence wasn't working out--it was making him worse.
I think Elliot had been pretty difficult to live with before he went to Santa Barbara, and most of that fell on his mother. Having him away at school made everyone else's life a little easier, they didn't have to deal with listening to his misery on a daily basis. And I do think they were trying to do their best for him, in terms of being supportive, and trying to foster some independence. But the fact he had gotten himself so badly beaten up should have sounded clear alarm bells for them--and they should have prevented him from going back to school at that point.
Months later, when his mother was alarmed enough to have the welfare check done, regardless of the assurances from the police that he was fine, his mother should have followed her gut instincts, gotten ahold of his father, and they should have gone to the school and insisted he come home. At that point, he did have 3 guns in his room, that they didn't know about, but I don't think he would have used them on his parents. But I think they had enough reason to bring him back home, simply because they were worried he might hurt himself. And maybe they would have found the guns if he had to pack up to leave.
Maybe they were reluctant to bring him back home because they weren't sure what to do with him next. The same pattern had been going on since high school--he went to 3 high schools because of his difficulties with social functioning, anxiety, and depression. Now he was at his third college, and he was over 21. What does a parent do next?
I don't know that either medication or therapy could have really helped him much. He didn't have the sort of problems that are at all easy to treat, and his basic core problems might have been untreatable. Supportive therapy might have helped to keep him afloat a little, medication might have given a little symptom relief, but I can't think of anything that would have really helped him to function more adequately socially, or deal with frustration more resiliently, or would have made him more capable of accepting that his life, and future, was probably, realistically, going to be much more limited than he wanted it to be.
I think he suffered from a constellation of problems that conventional methods of treatment simply can't successfully address with anything more than possibly a Band-Aid. I think that was true of Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook shooter too.
I don't think he would have benefited from hospitalization, except at the end, simply to stop his rampage, but without the evidence of his guns, and his manifesto, there would have been no reason to admit him for an emergency psych hold.
Perhaps there are residential treatment settings that might have afforded him a more comprehensive therapeutic/psychiatric approach, and better socialization programs, to more adequately prepare him for adult independent living, but I doubt he would have been willing to enter such a program.
The one place he didn't belong was on a college campus. He couldn't socially cope in that type of environment. And remaining in that type of environment, and trying to fit into that type of environment, really pushed him over the edge. Elliot's male counselor had suggested to him that he not go back to school after his ankle healed, Elliot insisted on going back. His parents should have stopped him. That's the only thing I think they might have done to help prevent this tragedy. And he still might have committed suicide had they done that.
I'm really not blaming his parents, or the mental health system, or the police. I do think his being able to easily obtain guns did help to create the perfect storm in this particular case, but he obtained them legally.
Sometimes you really can't prevent these things from happening. There is no crystal ball to show the future, and no magic wand you can wave to solve the problem.
