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A Massachusetts Supreme Court ruling on July 27 expanded colleges’ “duty” to protect students from harm, noting that this responsibility does not disappear when students become "voluntarily intoxicated."
The lawsuit discussed in the ruling was brought in 2016 by a Northeastern University student who said she was sexually assaulted by a male student after drinking heavily at an off-campus party hosted by a resident assistant. The female student became too intoxicated to consent to intercourse and was led by the male student back to the residence hall where both of them lived, according to the court’s opinion, written by Associate Justice Barbara Lenk. The female student claimed Northeastern was negligent under state law because the university failed to protect her from the sexual assault.
The court ultimately ruled against the female student’s claims, stating that the resident assistants at the party and a front desk employee at the students’ residence hall could not have reasonably known that she was at risk of being sexually assaulted. But the court did uphold that the “duty” colleges have to protect students from harm applies to instances where a student is voluntarily intoxicated.
The ruling follows two other significant state court decisions in Massachusetts and California decided in 2018, which established a “special relationship” of protection of students by colleges due to the fact that they not only attend classes but often live on campuses controlled by college officials. The two rulings said colleges have an obligation to protect students from danger and crimes committed by third parties or self-harm that could have been anticipated by college officials.
In its defense, Northeastern claimed no responsibility for students who decide to drink alcohol and face harm as a result of that decision. The court recognized that colleges must strike a delicate balance between students’ autonomy and protecting them, but said alcohol overconsumption is a known issue on campuses. Colleges recognize the prevalence and harm of alcohol through the ways they teach students about the dangers of substance use and by implementing medical amnesty policies, Lenk wrote.
“Dangerous drinking-related activities are a foreseeable hazard on college and university campuses,” Lenk wrote.
Lenk wrote that the responsibility of colleges to protect students from alcohol-related emergencies is triggered when colleges have "actual knowledge" that a student on campus "is in imminent danger of serious physical harm due to alcohol intoxication" and when a student is "so intoxicated that the student is incapable of seeking help for him- or herself."
"The college or university has a duty to take reasonable measures to protect that student from harm," she wrote.
