GWU Suit Prompts Questions of Liability [kicks out depressed student]

[MountainLaurel]

A student gets expelled from college for reporting that he's suicidal. Sure, that's gonna help make sure sick people get the help they need. Quite frankly, I'm not surprised this came from GW, which is presided over by a Reagan accolyte whose priority is keeping the money rolling in and not the welfare or best interests of students, staff or faculty.

:eyes:

About 2 a.m. one sleepless night, sophomore Jordan Nott checked himself into George Washington University Hospital.

He was depressed, he said, and thinking about suicide.

Within a day and a half of arriving there, he got a letter from a GWU administrator saying his "endangering behavior" violated the code of student conduct. He faced possible suspension and expulsion from school, the letter said, unless he withdrew and deferred the charges while he got treatment.

In the meantime, he was barred from campus.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/09/AR2006030902550.html

[RedOnce]

1. The college is sending the wrong message because...

"If he had known, he said, he never would have gone to the hospital."

Great! So, if you are suicidal the message is do not seek help!

But...the school is focused on liability:

"To have knowledge and fail to act is just an invitation to liability," said Sheldon Steinbach of the American Council on Education.

Historically, administrators have not been held responsible for student suicides, said Karen-Ann Broe of United Educators...there's more nervousness, Pavela said. "College administrators are talking about it and looking for guidance. . . . Some have decided that the safest thing to do is to get rid of these kids, if someone talks about suicide, or looks depressed."

What a mess.

So, kill the lawyers?

[Warpy]

2. Not the lawyers, the pinhead administrators

who seem incapable of making sane policy.

If anyone is barred from campus as a threat to students, it's not a depressed kid who knows he needs help, it's administrators who are so terrified of lawsuits from the kid's parents that they make the kid worse.