Suicides at universitis and colleges

When a person is admitted to an institution of higher learning, that person is considered an adult, and is responsible for his or her actions. No institution is mandated to act as a parent nor does any institution have the obligation to inform any parent of a child’s behavior, as that is confidentiality. It would be tantamount to an institution informing my parents of an action when I am 60 and they are nearly 80, for I am responsible for what I do.

Parents or family that sue institutions are not concerned about the death of the individual but expose their own greed and the desire for monetary gain. I have no time for such an absurdity. While MIT “settled” with the parents, it will be remembered as a travesty as if the student was a mere child, which was not the case. I applaud the Pennsylvania colleges, and regret only that they do not countersue the parents for filing and prosecuting a frivolous lawsuit.

Arthur Ide, at 8:05 am EDT on September 5, 2006

Guilt-driven

I agree with Arthur. Also, the parents’ desire to sue the university may not be driven by greed but rather a desire to free their own guilt. By blaming the institution and having that blame recognized by the courts, the parents can release the guilt they must surely feel for not raising a “happy” child. Now, I am in no way saying it IS the parents’ fault. Don’t get me wrong. What I’m saying is this: no matter how good a parent you have been, if your child commits suicide, you will feel like you must have failed as a parent. Blaming the courts releases some of that guilt. My heart goes out to that family. If we all could just have a magic time machine we could use just once... (ok, maybe twice).

S.D., at 9:05 am EDT on September 5, 2006

Do we really all agree?

Strangely, I think we all agree, and here is why:

FormerProf, As a policy matter, your solution is the way to go. Providing quality “first responder” type care (perhaps, itself, outsourced), coupled with good health insurance, will limit a school’s liability to almost nothing.

Mr. Idle is right: These kids are adults. They must be, and deserve to be treated like adults. If a professor bumps his head, he is likely to be treated at an infirmary, and given a pain killer Somehow people think that if a student bumps his head, his parents must be notified.

But, I think we need to distinguish between negligence actions and malpractice actions. I keep harping on this point, but many academics seem not to get this crucial legal distinction. Under normal circumstances, schools do not owe their students a duty to keep them from killing themselves. However, if they start treating someone they DO owe them such a duty. Likewise, if they start providing health care, they DO owe a duty to provide the student the level of care commensurate with that profession. Just like a hospital, law firm, or engineer might do.

SD, While parents might have various “motivations” to sue the school, the attorneys involved, at a minimum, had a well-founded belief that they could recover. Since the suit made it past summary judgment, all that was left to be decided was what happened and when, and what witnesses to believe. (There is a canard going around about how “trials” are “jackpot justice", but this is for non-intellectuals and non-lawyers, since even assuming a lawyer would file a non-meritorious lawsuit, there must be enough facts alleged by witnesses, and stated in affidavits to show that someone was entitled to summary judgment. But, as I said, I don’t think many academics buy into such a simplistic view of legal process.)

Larry, at 9:55 am EDT on September 5, 2006

I think Larry has it wrong. It’s not simply a question of what the liability system is; it’s what it should be. Traditionally there has been no legal duty to prevent suicide. Over the past few decades courts have created limited exceptions to that general rule. Some litigants and lawyers urge expansion of those exceptions by “pushing the envelope” on legal duty. That’s of questionable utility. The science of suicide prediction is imperfect at best. Even the most experienced mental health professional can make what in hindsight are wrong judgments when dealing with the mysteries of the human mind – witness the recent tragedy of the NIH psychiatrist who was killed by his schizophrenic patient. My point is that as a society we should decide that colleges should be able to put their resources into education and prevention programs rather than worrying about avoiding liability when they try to help at-risk students.

Robb Jones, at 3:10 pm EDT on September 6, 2006

2 Suicide Suits Conclude

I guess it’s ok to TAKE the tuition money from parents but God forbid you GIVE them any warning that their child may be in trouble! Maybe their suicides could have been prevented with parental involvement. Yes we want our children to be treated as adults when they go off to college in order to learn how to live in the “real world", but this is a whole differnt issue that needs to be addressed. I think Larry is the only one who has it somewhat RIGHT, an SD should be ashamed...your trying to take back the parental blame/guilt was a little late! I’ll bet my last dime that if it was your child, you’d be hiring a lawyer, or maybe you don’t have children which would explain your insensitivity!!!

Irene, at 1:10 pm EDT on September 11, 2006

Suicide Threat notification

In terms of dealing with students, each case is unique, as each student is unique. That said, I’d like to address the whole “student as an adult” issue. Emotionally, physiologically (brain chemistry is still very much in flux during the late teen years) financially, developmentally, can anyone really say that today’s college student is an adult? Are they becoming an adult? I hope so, but how many are really there? In my opinion, not many. The real question then must be, what actions by a college will help students toward maturation? I think holding students accountable for their behaviors is one way of encouraging development. However, at the end of the day, adult or not, I think you cannot allow an institution’s philosophical outlook on student development or even privacy to negatively impact a student’s ability to survive depression. In short, I’d rather be sued for breaking privacy laws by a living student, than for not preventing a suicide by a grieving family.

John, at 10:46 am EDT on September 22, 2006