Eric Harris' parents blame his psychologist

Eric Harris' parents blame his psychologist

Teresa/Colorado
Harrises question therapist's care
Parents cite their son's psychologist in papers filed with federal court
By Karen Abbott
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
--------------------------------------------
Eric Harris' parents may blame their son's psychologist in lawsuits filed
over the Columbine shootings.

The Harrises claim in federal court paperwork that Harris' psychologist,
Kevin Albert, has refused to give them the records of his treatment of their
son.

It was the first time Harris' therapist has been identified.

Columbine High School senior Harris and classmate Dylan Klebold killed 13
people and wounded more than 20 others before taking their own lives at the
suburban Jefferson County school on April 20, 1999.

Harris' psychological treatment has not been disclosed. He was prescribed
Luvox, an anti-depressant used to treat obsessive compulsive disorder and
depression.

Albert of Parker did not return telephone calls Monday.

The Harris and Klebold parents are defendants in lawsuits filed over the
incident by the families of seven slain students, one slain teacher and
eight wounded students.

Plaintiffs have accused the parents of failing to supervise their sons'
activities before the attack, the deadliest school shooting in the nation's
history.

A judge earlier had given defendants in the cases until Oct. 2 to name other
people not already named in the lawsuits who they believe might bear some or
all of the blame.

Wayne and Katherine Harris have filed legal paperwork in federal court
asking for more time to decide whether to name any other parties.

"Mr. and Mrs. Harris are particularly concerned about the mental health care
provided to their son by his treating psychologist, Dr. Kevin Albert," the
paperwork said.

"However, despite repeated requests, Dr. Albert has refused to share with
Mr. and Mrs. Harris the records of his treatment of their son. Mr. and Mrs.
Harris would like to review these records prior to having to make a decision
... " it said.

Albert, 47, has been licensed to practice in Colorado since 1991, according
to state records.

He is affiliated with the Colorado Family Center at 26 W. Dry Creek Circle
in Littleton, according to records.

Producers of anti-depressants Luvox, Zoloft and the more widely known Prozac
have been sued by survivors of people killed by attackers taking those
medications but the drugs' connection to violence is controversial in the
psychiatric community.

The Harrises' filing said they would like to wait until U.S. District Judge
Lewis Babcock rules on several motions to dismiss the lawsuits, filed by
various defendants.

More than three dozen defendants have been sued so far. They include
government agencies and individuals ranging from sheriff's deputies to
teachers and friends of the two young gunmen.



September 19, 2000

Erics medications:

Eric Harris' prescription was for Luvox, an anti-depressant medication commonly used to treat patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. He was first described another anti-depressant medication called Zoloft; but after using it for a while, he reported having suicidal and homicidal thoughts. As these issues were thought to be a result of the medication, they changed it to Luvox. However, they only changed the brand; not the type of medication.

These drugs are typically tested for safety and efficacy in adults but are also widely prescribed to children and teenagers. Doctors make dosage adjustments based on the patient’s weight. Luvox is generally prescribed to patients whose obsessions or compulsions cause them distress, consume time, or interfere with their daily activities.



And i read the reviews about Dr. Albert psychologist and theyre no good . 2 stars  rating

here are  some  reviews:

"My tip to you is to record the sessions and take pictures of your tests. I was given this advice and I did not follow it. Happy to see people are banding together to show how he is hurting families. I hope Jefferson County wise up and invistigates him. In my opinion, he is not a righteous man. He is not right for the mother side or father side. Don't let him ruin your family. Resolve issues on your own or choose/interview others before you decide. I'm going back to court to fight again after many years. I hope to not have to deal with him again."

"Good luck if you have to deal with him. Expect a big bill. Biased. Drawn out child custody battle. I has an inner hate he needs to deal with because it shows in his mind games and report. Why is Jefferson County still using him?
Record all of your sessions and phone calls with him. Take caution."

"Worst experience of my life. Google Kevin Albert and Columbine High School before you allow this man in your life."

"He produced a dishonest report that to this day still damages our family & my children."

As I have said many times before, Eric's therapy session notes will probably NEVER see the light of day. Albert claimed Doctor/Patient confidentiality, saying that Eric never gave him any reason to expect what he was planning.

BUT no one knows what was talked about during those visits. All we have is Albert's word to go by. I am sure he wouldn't have released anything that would have made him liable in anyway. SO the good Doctor could just be covering his ass. If Eric's own parents were not granted permission to see the case notes of their dead son, then most likely we wont either.

It seems so odd to me that the Harris's were not allowed to see the records. Eric was a minor then and committed a crime. You'd think there would be crucial information.

We are going to learn so much when the depositions are released. Many of the families wanted them released right away from what I've read. I'm not sure about the Harris's though.

Screamingophelia wrote:

It seems so odd to me that the Harris's were not allowed to see the records. Eric was a minor then and committed a crime. You'd think there would be crucial information.

We are going to learn so much when the depositions are released. Many of the families wanted them released right away from what I've read. I'm not sure about the Harris's though.

well the doc must be hiding something maybe he had no permisson to prescribe the meds?
the reviews seem bad about him

i hope the harris will be sucessfull someday getting the documents and lawsuit the doc like all his patients did.

I'd be surprised if Eric opened up to a therapist. Its purely on principal that hes not breaking the confidentiality agreement.

My mother took me to a psychologist when i was 15...I went maybe 4 times before i told her to stop wasting her money lol.

W.A.R. wrote:

My mother took me to a psychologist when i was 15...I went maybe 4 times before i told her to stop wasting her money lol.

Same. It just felt like a massive waste of time.

Wow, those reviews the doc gets are pretty telling. The guy is a crook straight up. Of course one botched doc can't be all the reason for the shooting, but it's a red flag seeing how he's still getting surprisingly bad reviews on his practice.

new review : "I told him my whole life he just kept telling me to just take pills. pills pills pills. he didnt help just told me to take pills that made my brain numb. I then googled him and found out he had one of the columbine killers in his care for 5 years and well he didn't help him obviously."

Was that really 5 years? I thought he visited that therapist after the van incident?

Harris’ therapy private

If Eric Harris ever told his therapist he wanted to kill specific people, his doctor had a duty to report it to protect their lives.

But psychologist Kevin Albert, who treated Harris before the 18-year-old’s deadly rampage at Columbine High School, had no duty to tell anyone if Harris confided that he wanted to kill everybody at his school, lawyers and psychologists said Tuesday.

Harris and classmate Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and wounded more than 20 others before taking their own lives April 20, 1999.

Law enforcement authorities have said the two gunmen intended to destroy the school and kill everyone in it and that they apparently fired on students and faculty at random.

“If there is any information forthcoming from any patient, having to do with a threat to another, then there is no confidentiality — you must warn the intended victim,” said Denver psychologist Jeff Dolgan, who heads the state Board of Examiners that licenses psychologists.

“But not if the patient says, ‘I’m going to get those people at school,"’ Dolgan said.

He said a patient must name “a specific intended victim — such as ‘I want to kill my mother,”’ to trigger a therapist’s duty to report the threat.

No one knows what Harris told Albert. The 47-year-old psychologist practices in Littleton and has a doctorate in psychology from the University of Denver. According to federal court documents, Albert has refused to give Harris’ parents the treatment records.

Albert has not returned telephone calls from the Denver Rocky Mountain News.

Albert’s treatment of Harris became an issue recently in lawsuits filed over the killings. Sixteen families of those who died or were injured have filed suits, naming more than three dozen defendants so far. The defendants include government agencies, teachers and the parents and friends of the two young gunmen, among others.

A judge may have to review Albert’s treatment records privately to determine whether they should become evidence in the lawsuits, according to Christopher Mueller, a University of Colorado law professor and expert on evidence and court procedures.

Albert likely wasn’t the only therapist who treated Harris, but he is the only one publicly named. Harris was known to be taking a prescription medication used to treat depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychologists, such as Albert, are not medical doctors and cannot prescribe medications.

Therapists often resist disclosing anything about their clients or their treatment, in court or even to a young patient’s parents. One reason is that disclosing the information might hurt the patient, the parents or others involved in the patient’s life, according to psychologist Lisa Kaley-Isley, who heads the legislative committee of the Colorado Psychological Association.

Also, she said, successful therapy depends on a patient being able to trust the therapist.

"It is creating that safe environment which is what enables people to be able to talk,” she said.

However, she said, psychologists usually tell patients in their first session that there are exceptions to that confidentiality. Among other things, therapists must report child abuse, must take action if a patient is too gravely disabled to care for himself or herself and may be ordered by a judge to testify or turn over records, she said.

Mueller said the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that therapists may not be compelled to disclose things about their patients, unless certain exceptions apply such as the duty to warn others of threats.

The Harris case is complicated by the fact that Eric Harris turned 18 shortly before the shootings. Absent a specific threat, no one generally has the right to know what goes on in an adult’s therapy, according to Rick Stewart, president of the Colorado Psychological Association.

But Stewart said the law isn’t black and white. Even a threat that doesn’t include specifically identified individuals might require a therapist to report it in some situations, he said.

He told of a Colorado case in which a patient told his therapist, “I want to kill cops,” and then killed a police officer who showed up at a convenience store where the patient was acting strangely.

Stewart said the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the question of whether the therapist had to report the man’s statement should be answered in a trial, but the case was settled.

Another issue in the Harris case is whether he still has the right to confidentiality with his therapist even though he has died.

Mueller said the right to confidentiality continues after death, and that Harris’ therapist is ethically obliged to fight to protect it.

“The privilege doesn’t end with death,” Mueller said. “And a patient cannot waive it by committing murders.”

(source: Rocky Mountain News)

Either way, we will never see those session notes. SO whether Eric lied his way through and never said anything to make Albert question him, OR(to my skeptical way of thinking) maybe he did and the Doc is covering his ass. Just another Columbine mystery.

Harrises didn’t see a monster in their midst

Wayne Harris sweated on the sidelines as he coached his older son’s basketball team. Kathy Harris wept when her younger son harassed a neighbor boy. Together, they hovered over the boys’ homework and closely watched their curfews.

One son grew into a role model, the other a monster. And many who know the parents say it wasn’t their fault.

Thirteen people died at the hands of Wayne and Kathy Harris’s son, Eric, and his buddy, Dylan Klebold.

Then the high school seniors killed themselves, taking to their graves many answers to the Columbine heartache.

But Kristi Hofstra can answer one question.

“Everyone who truly knows the Harrises wouldn’t ever be really mad at them,” said Hofstra, 20, a Columbine graduate who once dated Eric’s older brother, Kevin, also 20.

Since the massacre, friends of Tom and Sue Klebold have talked openly about their son, Dylan, 17, who’s often viewed as more of a follower in the madness. The Harrises’ insistence on complete privacy and their son’s role as leader have opened them up more to critics.

Now defenders have started to surface, eager to break the silence. Some of the most vocal are themselves scarred by Eric’s bombs and bullets.

“They’re a good family. That’s the main point,” said Derek Holliday, 20, a 1997 Columbine graduate.

“I always felt 100 percent welcome in their home, and his parents were 100 percent awesome to me.”

Derek is in the middle of the tragedy.

His best friend is Kevin Harris, and his sister, 18-year-old Jessica Holliday, was in the library during the rampage and narrowly escaped bullets.

Soon after learning Eric was a killer, the Harrises phoned the Hollidays and asked about Jessica.

“Finding out she was OK made them feel better,” Derek said. “That’s the kind of people they are.”

No one in Harris’ immediate family would comment for this story. Their shroud of secrecy stretches to employers and relatives. More than a dozen refused to talk about the family.

Despite their closed public image, though, the Harris family is a respected one with deep ties to Colorado.

One grandfather ran a hardware store in Denver. Another was a longtime valet at the Brown Palace Hotel.

The day Eric Harris started killing people at Columbine, hundreds of students ran for their lives past a pale brick house where Eric’s aunt and uncle live, a tenth of a mile from the battle-scarred school.

“You couldn’t find better people in the world,” said Ozzie Schou, 73. He’s known Harris’ aunt, Sandra Harris Birks, and her husband, Ray, more than 20 years.

“Ray said young Harris was over there quite a bit. He said it never dawned on him that Eric could do something like that,” Schou said.

Victor Good, whose stepson Nathan Dykeman was friends with both killers, believes their actions stunned their parents as much as anyone.

“Both of these families were very caring families,” he said. “They spent time with their kids. They did things with their kids. They were probably better parents than 90 percent of the parents out there.”

The Harris family spans at least three generations in this area.

Strung across south Denver and the city’s southern suburbs, they are nurses and business owners, retired state employees and homemakers. And they are well thought of by neighbors and acquaintances. Solid folks, some quite affluent. No violent pasts.

It was in the 1950s when Eric’s mother, Kathy Pool, and her twin sister, Karen, moved with their parents, Richard and Elaine Pool, into a new brick home on Forest Street in southeast Denver’s Virginia Village neighborhood.

Richard ran Hilltop Hardware on Holly Street.

Later, he worked for the Colorado Department of Transportation as a warehouse supply officer.

The Pools, both in their 70s now, still live in that house.

“They’re just wonderful people. Write something positive about them,” said neighbor Robert Smolka. Crippled by cancer, he relies on Eric’s grandparents to take his trash to the curb every week.

“They were always very nice, very cordial and very decent people,” said Clayton Hill, who grew up across from the Pools.

He recalled little about Eric’s mother, who is now 49, though both graduated from Denver’s George Washington High School in 1967.

Like other members of the class of ‘67, Hill was surprised to learn of the connection.

“Boy, you just shot a chill up my spine,” said class member Dean Humble of Longmont, when told about Kathy Pool’s son.

“Poor woman. It wasn’t her fault. The poor woman,” he said.

Classmates remembered Kathy as an average student. A nice girl.

“Nothing stood out about her,” classmate Adrean Pepper said. “She wasn’t in the ‘in’ crowd. She wasn’t a nerd.”

Kathy and her twin belonged to Mogulmeisters, George Washington’s ski club. And Kathy Pool served as a hostess for the school’s PTA fashion show, according to the yearbook.

Several from the 850-member graduating class said they believed she did not attend any reunions – a contrast from her husband, Wayne.

Wayne Harris, a 1966 graduate of Englewood High School, was remembered as a smart and shy teen. But by the time of his 20-year reunion, he had turned into a confident Air Force pilot.

His clipped, at times cocky, answers in a reunion questionnaire offered glimpses.

Under “What I like,” he answered, “Eating, drinking, flying and loving, not necessarily in that order.”

Under “Best habits,” he wrote, “Too numerous to mention.”

Wayne Harris was a father by then. His goal? “Raise two good sons.”

Harris grew up in a small, tidy house on South Lafayette Street in Englewood. His father, Walter Harris, worked more than 20 years as a valet in the Brown Palace Hotel.

After high school, Wayne Harris spent three years at the University of Colorado. Business was his major. He finished at Metropolitan State College in Denver, graduating with a degree in aviation maintenance management.

From there, he joined the Air Force, rose through the ranks and traveled the country as a pilot.

He flew refueling tankers in Fairchild, Wash., and Wichita, Kan., where Eric was born. He advanced as a research and test pilot, moving to Ohio, where he worked on B-1 bombers. The family spent a few years in Oscoda, Mich., then Plattsburgh, N.Y.

By 1993, Harris had earned two meritorious service medals and two Air Force commendation medals.

He retired as a major. And he came home to Colorado.

The First Presbyterian Church of Englewood sits across Logan Street from Swedish Medical Center, where four wounded teens were rushed as the Columbine chaos unfolded.

Twenty-nine years earlier, on a spring day in 1970, Wayne Harris and Kathy Pool married in this church. They celebrated their wedding anniversary three days before their son, Eric, devastated the community.

The shootings launched the largest criminal investigation in Colorado history. Yet Wayne and Kathy Harris have said they won’t share anything about their troubled son with police unless they’re granted immunity from prosecution.

There have been some rumblings from local authorities about pursuing charges against the parents.

Gov. Bill Owens suggested as much on national television days after the killings.

And Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone has said investigators found the sawed-off barrel of a shotgun on a dresser in Harris’s bedroom. Pipe bombs and bomb-making materials also were strewn about the room.

“The parents should have been aware of it,” Stone said.

People close to the Harrises rush to their defense.

“Kids have all different kinds of stuff in their room that parents never know about,” said Kristi Hofstra, who’s now a pharmacy student at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

She and Kevin Harris quit dating in high school but resumed their friendship after the killings.

Wayne and Kathy Harris imposed strict curfews on Kevin, she said.

“His parents definitely knew what he was up to.”

Kevin has been described again and again as the ideal son. He played football two years at Columbine and basketball one year.

Now at the University of Colorado, he’s majoring in kinesiology, a physical therapy specialty, and lives in Boulder most of the year.

In yet another link in the Columbine chain, Hofstra’s younger brother, also named Kevin, had been pals with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in the past.

Kevin Hofstra said Eric’s parents were tough with their sons about homework and curfews, but caring.

“Back then, (Eric) did a whole lotta schoolwork. He was really into school,” Kevin Hofstra said.

He believes other, bitter Columbine students planted the seeds of Eric Harris’ rage. Not his family.

Harris and Klebold sought out the quirky, downtrodden outcasts known as the Trench Coat Mafia, he said.

“Before they got into that group, they pretty much liked the school and liked the teachers and didn’t mind talking to other people,” Kevin Hofstra said.

“But when they got into the Trench Coats, they’re the ones who hated the school, and they just kind of heard it so much they started to believe it.”

Perhaps the first obvious sign of trouble came in January 1998, when Harris and Klebold were arrested for breaking into a van. No jail time, but Wayne and Kathy Harris didn’t take matters lightly.

“They were all trying to get counseling, trying to get help … because of the burglary thing,” Derek Holliday said.

Eric began seeing a psychiatrist, and taking an anti-depressant, Luvox.

But his seething hate was being displayed on his Internet site.

In pages and pages, he raged about everything he hated and wanted to torture and kill:

People who cut in line. People who bragged about their military connections. Weather forecasters. People who mispronounce words. Even Star Wars fans: “GET A FRIKIN LIFE YOU BORING —-HEADS!.”

“I am the law, if you don’t like it, you die,” Harris announced on his computer.

Plenty of kids abuse the Internet, and their parents don’t have a clue, say defenders of the Harrises.

“My parents are the best parents in the world, but they don’t go looking on the computer to see what I looked at,” Holliday said.

Victor Good recalls how mature Eric Harris seemed.

When visiting the Goods’ home, Eric would always stop and chat with the adults. He talked to Good about his dream of joining the Marines. Not college. Only the military.

When Good took the boys to a Rockies game last summer, Eric brought along his backpack, all neatly packed with snacks and his baseball glove.

Harris, Klebold and Nate Dykeman, Good’s stepson, were cooks at Blackjack Pizza. Not long before the killings, Harris took a night off to stay home with his sick dog, getting Klebold to substitute for him, Good said.

All of this has convinced Good that the parents – both the Harrises and the Klebolds – were also victims of these very secretive killers.

Support for the Harrises spans generations. It crosses time zones.

“They have one kid that’s an ideal. Everybody wants a Kevin Harris as their child. Then they have an Eric Harris. They tried to do everything they could and he still ended up wrong,” said Kristi Hofstra.

Back in Plattsburgh, N.Y., longtime friend Carolyn Payne has been trying to reach the Harrises.

She and Kathy Harris attended military wives’ luncheons together and developed a special bond. They still exchange Christmas cards.

Payne wrote this in a letter to the local Plattsburgh newspaper:

“We are all one bullet and one pipe bomb away from the agony of Wayne and Kathy Harris. Don’t judge them too quickly. How many people will give them a sympathetic look or just listen if they want to share their grief?

“I will, Kathy. I will, Wayne. I will.”

I don’t understand why some blame his parents there were even talkings about emotional abuse I don’t think they were kind of these parents yes they grounded him but who didn’t do that if the kids do something bad?

Eric to some extent was honest about his anger and controversial thoughts. When he filled out his diversion questionnaire he admitted to having homicidal thoughts. Obviously he did not explicitly tell his therapist that he wanted to kill people, because that would have led to more serious actions being taken, but I don't think he lied 100% of the time to his therapist.

ShadowedGoddess wrote:

Either way, we will never see those session notes. SO whether Eric lied his way through and never said anything to make Albert question him, OR(to my skeptical way of thinking) maybe he did and the Doc is covering his ass. Just another Columbine mystery.

Reading this thread, I'm inclined to think he was just trying to protect his career. Was there something horrific in the notes? Terrible psychologist. Was there nothing in the notes? Why didn't you get there? Terrible psychologist. "I can't talk about it" prevented people from definitively making either conclusion. For someone trying to pay bills, that might have seemed the best of some awful outcomes.