GW Bars Depressed Student

[showcase]

According to this story, GW kicked out a kid for having suicidal thoughts. They'll be rid of their entire student body in no time with this policy. I think they brought in a convoy of buses after today's loss to Temple.

Ah, the things some resort to in order to compete with the excellence that is Georgetown.

[Nevada Hoya]

No wonder he was depressed:

"GWU was Nott's dream school, he said recently. He'd always wanted to study foreign relations in Washington, he said, so after starting classes, making friends his freshman year and getting straight A's, he was the happiest he'd ever been."

But seriously, when the colleges and universities start throwing out students, who are suicidal, when they need help the most, you are going to have an unhealthy situation.

[EasyEd]

One of the reasons they tossed him out is that another college had a student commit suicide and the family sued the college and collected something like $27M (I'm not sure of this figure).

[Nevada Hoya]

Ed, I think that is one of the problems in our society now - the fear of the lawsuit. That is playing havoc with all aspects of American life. In this case universities would rather throw a kid out than deal with the problems he is having, because of the threat of a lawsuit if he does commit suicide. All sorts of athletic endeavors have to be curtailed because of the insurance rates, because somebody would sue.

[SirSaxa]

And what happens to the next depressed student who decides he better not tell anyone because he might get kicked out?

I hope there is more to this story.

NYU has had a rash of suicides in recent years. I haven't read about law suits... doesn't mean there weren't any.

[Nevada Hoya]

The WP's take on the whole matter:

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/12/AR2006031200804.html

[AustinHoya03]

From the WaPo editorial:

"if you come onto campus for any reason, you will be trespassing and may be arrested," the letter said."

GW has a campus?

[AustinHoya03]

nevadahoya3 said:

Ed, I think that is one of the problems in our society now - the fear of the lawsuit. That is playing havoc with all aspects of American life. In this case universities would rather throw a kid out than deal with the problems he is having, because of the threat of a lawsuit if he does commit suicide. All sorts of athletic endeavors have to be curtailed because of the insurance rates, because somebody would sue.

Agree with your first sentence. I would guess that GW's lawyers either were not consulted in this instance or did a poor job of crafting a response to this issue. The school should be able to protect itself without booting the student. If a school can't do that, perhaps legislation is needed to protect both the school and the students.

There's a group of lawyers that would like to eventually chunk the adversarial system in favor of a system that takes relationships between people and institutions into account. (Carrie Menkel-Meadow at GU Law is one person who thinks ADR will save the world.) I don't think this will ever happen, but such a system would have helped in this case. GW probably would have liked to have helped this student/future alum and avoid the public relations fiasco that has followed, but those desires aren't very important within an adversarial system.

[Filo]

So GW booted the student to avoid a potential lawsuit but then got sued anyway...

Agree on the 'fear of lawsuits' issue -- our legal system is broken, and this fear of lawsuits pervades in so many areas (e.g. medicine), leading to some real bad decisions and outcomes (like GW's decision).

It really irks me that the problems associated with our broken system are often boiled down to a political issue (Democrat v. Republican). I wish the country could get past that and open up a meaningful discussion on reform.

PS - When I first read the headline, I thought it was a student complaining about the bar scene at GW. I imagine the bars at GU could be depressing too.

[Deleted]

As someone who has a very close friend who's suffered with depression for years, I'm disgusted GW would revert to such tatctics. To add a trauma of that magnitude on top of an already troubled personal life is a recipie for disaster.

[Cambridge]

buffalohoya said:

As someone who has a very close friend who's suffered with depression for years, I'm disgusted GW would revert to such tatctics. To add a trauma of that magnitude on top of an already troubled personal life is a recipie for disaster.

mmmmm....reci-pie for disaster. delicious.

ps. I am aware of how base it is to jest in the midst of such a touchingly candid moment...but I couldn't help it.