Monday’s massacre at Virginia Tech could lead to tighter laws governing mentally ill students.

The deadliest shooting rampage on an American campus has caused state legislators to consider requiring counseling for some students. Under proposals being considered, if a student’s writing disturbs a professor or a student’s roommate thinks the student is suicidal, for example, then the student would have to submit to treatment.

Cho Seung-Hui, the student authorities believe killed at least 30 of the 32 victims on Monday, entered a psychiatric hospital in December 2005 after his roommate told university police that Cho may be suicidal.

CNN reported Wednesday that Cho was declared mentally ill by a Virginia special justice, who issued a temporary detention order signed Dec. 14, 2005. But after he was released, there is no record of him receiving any other treatment in the 16 months between leaving the hospital and Monday.

“Our universities are so stressful now,” said Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, R-Vienna, whose daughter graduated from Madison High School with Maxine Turner, one of Monday’s victims. “It’s harder and harder to get accepted, and once you are in school there is a lot of stress to do well. Sometimes it is more stress than our young people can handle. We need to get them the help they need and help them get an education.”