Correspondence obtained by The Arizona Republic revealed that the Tucson shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, had alarmed several instructors and teachers while taking classes at Pima Community College. The 255 e-mails show that college officials were concerned about Loughner’s disruptive behavior but struggled to find sufficient grounds on which to expel him.
In one instance, Loughner interrupted his math teacher to insist the number 6 was the number 18 instead. A counselor reported Loughner as having asked the instructor, “How can you deny math instead of accept it?”
Other disruptive behavior included, “staring at the instructor and classmates with ‘an evil’ big smile and laughing very inappropriately at a math point the instructor made.”
One of Loughner’s instructors received a complaint that he had placed a knife on his desk. The instructor sent the following e-mail: “I think we ought to have another conversation with Jared to try to get to the bottom of this, and really at this point, I’d like to do everything we can to have him removed from the class.”
Still, university officials felt they lacked proper justification for expulsion.
“Since there has been no direct threat from the student and since he has completely complied with the directive given to him by Delisa, I did not feel comfortable rushing in to remove the student from class,” wrote another instructor.
Loughner was eventually suspended from the university and decided not to return.
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