College students who seek treatment for depression and other emotional conditions may run the risk of expulsion thanks to new 'mandatory leave' policies at universities not wanting to bear any legal responsibility.
From www.bazelon.org:
Jordan Nott was a straight-A sophomore at George Washington University (GWU) in the fall of 2004 when he sought emergency psychiatric care for depression. When they learned of Nott's hospitalization, university officials charged him with violating the school code of conduct, suspended him, evicted him from his dorm and threatened him with arrest for trespassing if he set foot on university property.
From The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required):
Mr. Nott, now a student at the University of Maryland at College Park, claims that by sharing confidential information about his psychiatric treatment and by punishing him for seeking help, university officials violated federal laws protecting Americans with disabilities[.]
The university counters that Mr. Nott's depression is not a disability, and has filed documents with the Superior Court of the District of Columbia seeking the dismissal of charges against its administrators.
In previous related case law (source: The Chronicle):
* In 2005, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge allowed the parents of Elizabeth Shin, who took her life in an MIT dorm during her sophomore year, to sue MIT for failing to prevent her death.
* In 2004, the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights advised that Bluffton University officials had erred in expelling a student who had attempted suicide without offering her the opportunity to appeal the decision.
* In 2002, in Schieszler vs. Ferrum College, a federal court ruled that Ferrum College had a legal duty to protect the life of a student whom they knew had an "imminent probability" to harm himself.