Was it wise to delay the release of O [Othello] due to the school shootings a couple of years back?
I don’t think it was. The violence in this film had me turning my head, first away from it in aversion, but then returning to it in contemplation (as is so common with WS material).
Obviously the delay staved off the Grundy faction, but at the same time it effectively buried a film which would have brought insight into the contemporaneous real world events.
I think it all depends whose viewpoint you’re looking at. Objectively, it was a bad thing for the reasons you mentioned and probably a couple more.
From the distributor’s viewpoint, however, it was probably in their best interests to avoid the shitstorm that a release right on top of the Columbine shootings would have brought. (On the other hand, said shitstorm probably would have brought in more money as even bad publicity is, within reason, good publicity…)
We need a spoiler warning for Othello? 
Or am I the only one who was paying attention back in sophomore English class?
If we talk about Romeo and Juliet, or Hamlet, or MacBeth, should we post spoiler warnings, too? Is there a mod in the house, we need a decision here…
Although, I do want a spoiler warning for that gonzo-looking Titus Andronicus/Anthony Hopkins thing, 'cause I haven’t gotten around to seeing it yet.
And, er, to address the OP, yes, I think they made the absolutely right decision, because you know as well as I do that if they’d gone ahead and released it, there would have been a TON of finger-pointing, “Ah, look at those greedy scaremongers, cashing in on America’s pain and sorrow…”
In a minute or two I’ll remember the last time a movie release coincided with some great national tragedy, and the ton of “cashing in on America’s pain and sorrow” finger-pointing that resulted, along with the filmmakers’ protestations that the release date had been carved in stone on Mount Sinai in the year 685 B.C. and couldn’t have been changed.