They Sure Do Like to Fuck Us Over

Posted on May 29, 2006 in Stigma Suicide

While surfing today, I found a link to the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. Right at the top of the page was this article:

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.

An editorial in the March 13, 2006 Washington Post asks, “Since when does being sick constitute a disciplinary problem?”….

Situations like Nott’s are increasingly common in educational institutions around the country, as described in a March 13, 2006 article in Inside Higher Education. A fundamental problem is that, without considering students’ individual circumstances, disciplinary charges or mandatory leaves of absence are imposed on students who appear to have self-injurious behaviors or thoughts and/or seek psychiatric treatment. If students fear reprisal when their efforts to obtain help come to administrators’ attention, many will suffer in silence.

Jordan Nott had become depressed after a close friend committed suicide, so he went to the university’s counseling center, which prescribed antidepressants. But he felt worse and began to worry about a potentially negative drug reaction. At 2:00 am one Saturday morning, he voluntarily admitted himself to the university hospital.

Within hours, Nott got a letter saying that he could not return to his dorm without receiving clearance from the university counseling center and the “community living and learning center” (his dorm). The following day, while he was still in the hospital, another letter came, charging him with “endangering behavior” in violation of the school’s code of conduct. Who or what he “endangered” with the “behavior” of seeking treatment remains a mystery.

Jordan could attend a hearing before the judicial board, the letter said, but if the board found him guilty of violating the student code of conduct he faced suspension or expulsion. Or he could withdraw and seek readmission upon proof that he had successfully completed medical treatment, had been symptom-free for six months and could live independently and perform successfully. He chose to withdraw and is now completing studies at the University of Maryland.