Emails released by community college about Jared Loughner

TUCSON, AZ - Hundreds of email conversations between Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner and a school he attended before the January rampage have been released by authorities.

Pima Community College released the records Thursday after The Arizona Republic sued the college for withholding them. A judge rejected the school's argument that the records were protected by a federal privacy law.

According to the documents, instructors were having a difficult time handling Loughner’s behavior.

A chain of emails in 2009 included a complaint from Loughner about not learning enough in his Tai Chi class.

Loughner wrote in an email on Sept. 24, 2009:

I was ignored through the classes and didn’t learn the proper positions. I am community college student who was scammed.

In an email sent on Sept. 26, 2009, the Tai Chi instructor wrote to fellow employees the following regarding Loughner:

what can I say? this was so out of the blue for me but i think i see so many people come thru my classes that there will be a few psycho eggs. i could tell he had emotional problems but my mission is to help everyone.

Another email from the school refers to Loughner as a “very disruptive student” and mentioned that an instructor believed Loughner was under the influence of drugs.

On June 2, 2010, a counselor wrote in an email regarding Loughner's complaint about a math class:

He said, “My Instructor said he called a number 6 and I said I call it 18.” He also asked the Instructor to explain, “How can you deny math instead of accept it?”

I asked him to explain how this was pertinent to the subject at hand? He said these questions caused students to think.

He has extreme views and frequently meanders from the point. He seems to have difficulty understanding how his actions impact others, yet very attuned to his unique ideology that is not always homogenous.

“Every student has the right to have a safe learning environment,” the counselor wrote in the same email.

According to the documents, a student also complained about Loughner, telling a writing teacher in February 2010 about Loughner putting a pocketknife on his desk. The complaint came nearly 11 months before the shooting that left six dead and 13 wounded, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

In another email, the teacher notes that another student had a similar complaint and says he wants to remove Loughner from the class.

Loughner began attending classes at the college in 2005 but was eventually kicked out because of behavior that campus police considered disturbing.

He was told to get a mental health evaluation or not return.

Loughner has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the Jan. 8 attack.