it was just a matter of time before something terrible was going to happen. >> reporter: he was loughner as algebra teacher. >> i didn't want to take chances. i wanted to take action immediately. i took the first step of action and then they carried it out. >> reporter: school officials suspended loughner in late september but that was after five separate incidents involving campus police. campus police visited him and his parents but school officials say they couldn't do anything more. hamstrung by personal privacy rights. >> the school felt it had done what it needed to do to protect the other students on campus. >> and that was our primary concern. >> is there any afterthought now that maybe the school should have went a step further and tried to get some kind of a commitment order against this person? >> well, hindsight is always