How responsible is an institution of higher education, when a student commits suicide?
Reference article here.
For starters: In both cases mentioned in the article, the one at OIT, and the one at MIT, the parents claim that they were not informed of the student's mental problems.
These students are adults. The parents have no right to their confidential medical information.
Moving on: What exactly do the parents expect to gain from filing this lawsuit (two years after the fact), besides $2 million in taxpayer dollars that would be better spent in the classroom? Oregon already has a problem funding higher education.
From the article: Last year, OIT joined a growing number of universities that have tightened their suicide prevention policies to say that a student who threatens harm to himself can be removed from campus unless he allows a medical professional to evaluate him. The University of Oregon adopted a similar policy that will take effect July 1.
Ah. As a friend points out: "I wonder what effect throwing them out will have on their mental state."
I can see the future: Submit with your SAT score a standard psychological evaluation. Perhaps there will be a disclaimer when a student accepts admission into a school: "By registering for classes, you agree that {college} is not liable for your suicide." Or... rather than subjecting questionable students to a psychiatric examiner, simply expel them altogether.
From the article: College students are far less likely than their nonstudent peers to kill themselves, studies show.
That might be, perhaps, because colleges offer mental health counseling, and occasionally it works?
From the article: The lawsuit claims that OIT and campus counseling center employees contributed to Jordan's death when they failed to refer him to a psychiatrist, failed to diagnose and adequately treat his mental illness, didn't notify his family that he was at risk, and ended his counseling.
Ah. I might have an explanation as to why they may have ended his counseling, etc. To quote the fictional Dr. Gregory House: "Patients lie."
Perhaps he told the counselors that he was better, or that he was lying about wanting to die, said it in desperation, was just stressed, or something else that led them to believe he would not commit suicide.
Or, perhaps they thought he was better, and they were wrong.
Not everyone who receives cancer treatment is cured. Not everyone recovers from difficult surgury. Not everyone who has seen a counselor for suicidal thoughts never thinks about it or tries it again.
Ms. Jordan:
If you win, I hope that $2 million check was worth your son's life. I hope you sleep your nights better knowing that the Oregon University System and OIT have been punished to the tune of a dollar amount exceeding the salaries of more than six professors over five years.
Meanwhile, students of the future will wonder why they can't go to college if they have ever had any sort of mental illness, and why they get thrown out of school if they develop mental illness while attending.
In part, they'll have you to thank.
