AP: Another University Settles Suit re Student w/ Psych Disability
Wednesday, November 1, 2006
Mental Health Lawsuit Settled
Insidehighered.com November 1, 2006
Another major university has settled a major lawsuit challenging its treatment and handling of a mentally ill student.
Within months of settlements by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the City University of New Yorks Hunter College, George Washington University said Tuesday that it had reached a confidential agreement to resolve a lawsuit filed last year on behalf of Jordan Nott, who challenged George Washingtons policies after he said he was forced to leave the university after seeking help for depression at the universitys counseling center.
Notts lawsuit alleged that the university had violated the Americans With Disabilities Act and other local and federal laws by charging him through the student disciplinary process and barring him from the campus; George Washington officials have consistently defended Notts removal from the campus as necessary to protect other students and Nott himself.
Statements released by the university and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, which was helping to represent Nott said that the parties declined to disclose the terms of the settlement, which came as lawyers in the case were in the discovery phase of the lawsuit, collecting evidence, interviewing witnesses, and the like.
This was a very difficult situation. We were attempting to serve the best interests of Mr. Nott while also considering the well being of all of our students, said John F. Williams, George Washingtons provost and vice president for health affairs. While we recognize that some steps in the process may not have been perfect, we stand by the result. We appreciate Mr. Notts support in resolving this matter, and we wish him continued success.
Nott said: I hope that this difficult experience will result in positive changes in how student mental health issues are handled at campuses across the country. And I certainly hope that other universities will not discipline their students for seeking mental health treatment.
Karen Bower, a lawyer for the Bazelon center, said that she was pleased that GW is reviewing and revising its policies, and hope that Jordans case and others will prompt universities to adopt policies that do not penalize students for seeking mental health treatment and that are not linked to the disciplinary process.
A George Washington spokeswoman, Tracy Schario, said the university had been reviewing its policies on students involuntary withdrawal for medical mental health reasons since before the lawsuit was filed, and that it expects to announce a revised policy soon. The specific goal of the revised policy will be to develop an administrative process for removing mentally ill students against their will, but without involving disciplinary action; at the time Nott was suspended, and even now, the only tool we have is the disciplinary process when the university wants to remove a student because it believes he or she poses a threat because of mental health, Schario said.
She noted that while hundreds of students at George Washington each year experience depression or are potentially suicidal, it is an extraordinary case in which the university seeks to have the student leave against his or her will. Schario said the universitys evolving policy would probably align in important ways with a framework released this summer by the Jed Foundation.
Colleges and universities have faced increasing litigation over their policies related to mentally ill students, and in recent months, George Washington becomes the latest to settle highly visible cases. In April, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced a confidential agreement to resolve a lawsuit brought by the family of a student who lit herself on fire in her dorm room and died in 2000, and in August, Hunter College agreed to pay $65,000 to settle a lawsuit challenging the public colleges policy governing students deemed to be at risk of suicide.
Bower of the Bazelon center said she hoped the settlements at Hunter and George Washington would discourage colleges from having policies, however well intended, that punish students rather than discourage them from getting the needed help, which are often adopted as an overreaction to liability concerns.
Doug Lederman
-------------
College, student settle suit over health
By MARTY NILAND ASSOCIATED PRESS October 31, 2006
WASHINGTON -- A former student who was barred from the campus of George Washington University and threatened with expulsion after checking into a hospital with depression has settled a lawsuit with the college, both sides announced Tuesday.
The school told Jordan Nott his 2004 hospitalization violated the school's code of conduct because it demonstrated dangerous behavior. He said he hadn't tried to kill himself before the hospitalization, but had been thinking about it because of the suicide of another George Washington student.
He was barred from campus and threatened with suspension or expulsion unless he withdrew. He decided not to fight the charges and transferred to another school a few months later.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. University officials said they were reviewing and revising their policies on involuntary mental health withdrawal and hoped to have a new plan by the end of the semester.
"Currently, the way we handle involuntary withdrawals is a judicial one," said university spokeswoman Tracy Schario. "We're looking at how to make it an administrative process."
Karen Bower of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, which represented Nott, said the group was pleased the university was considering changes.
"It is important that any policy provide for individualized determinations of whether a student can remain on campus based on an objective medical evaluation after discharge from a hospital, without rigid rules based solely upon the fact of hospitalization," she said.
Schario said most George Washington students dealing with depression are not forced to withdraw.
"It's an extraordinary circumstance where it's an involuntary situation," she said. "Our student health center helps hundreds of students, many of whom are depressed."
Schools nationwide are facing legal challenges on how they handle students' mental health problems.
Hunter College, part of the City University of New York system, announced in August that it was abandoning its three-year-old policy to evict dormitory dwellers who attempt suicide as part of a settlement with a student who sued the school.
The Bazelon Center is also representing a student at a Connecticut boarding school who was placed on a mandatory leave after seeking treatment for depression.