This is worth at least six paving stones.

[the_wanlorn]

 
This article left me feeling physically ill. That is not the way to handle suicide attempts, at all. Jesus fucking H. Christ. Where the hell are their decision making skills? Isn't there anyone on staff going "Uh, no guys, that's not a good idea"?

Clearly not.

NEW YORK - A depressed Hunter College student who swallowed handfuls of Tylenol, then saved her own life by calling 911, was in for a surprise when she returned to her dorm room after the ordeal.

The lock had been changed.

She was being expelled from the dorm, the school informed her, because she violated her housing contract by attempting suicide. The 19-year-old was allowed to retrieve her belongings as a security guard stood watch.

I'm sorry, attempting suicide violates the housing contract? Being the curious little bugger that I am, I went and found Hunter's housing contract and read through it. (NB: This is the first time I've ever read a housing contract and damn are they boring. From the contract (PDF File):

I. Harmful Acts and Psychological Issues
A student who attempts suicide or in anyway attempts harm to him or herself will be asked to take a leave of absence for at least one semester from the Residence Hall and will be evaluated by the school psychologist or his/her designated counselor prior to returning to the Residence Hall. Additionally, students with psychological issues may be mandated by the Office of Residence Life to receive counseling.

Well, I'll be damned, they do have a policy against it. And that policy kicks the student out of school for a semester. Uh huh.

What exactly is the student supposed to do for that semester? Get a job? Sure, that sounds like a brilliant plan. I'm sure that s/he is up to working right after a suicide attempt. Let me let you in on a little secret: Going to classes and doing HW? Is far easier than getting yourself out of bed to go to work. And, minus any therapy, that person is probably going to spend his/her time lying in bed and doing nothing constructive.

Do I really need to tell you just how not-good that is?

On top of that, where is he/she supposed to live? Back home? Maybe that's excellent for some people, but what about the ones whose problems stem from their home? Were I to try and kill myself now, the very last thing I'd want to do is go home. I'd like to be able to come back to my dorm room - which is what I've made home, not the place where my parents are - and be around the people who I know make me feel better. That is, my friends, not my parents.

For a lot of people, I'd hazard to say, being locked out of your dorm is like being locked out of your house. "Oh," the administration is saying. "You just tried to kill yourself? Well then! Forget coming back to somewhere you feel safe and comfortable! We're going to send you on a trip X miles across the country to go live back with your parents! Have fun being a little kid again, 'cause clearly you need to be treated like one."

Hunter College announced last month that it was abandoning its 3-year-old suicide policy as part of a settlement with the student. The student, who was allowed to continue attending class, claimed in a lawsuit that her 2004 ouster from the dorms violated federal law protecting disabled people from discrimination.

Good. Depression may not be a physical disability, but it sure as hell is a disability. One without the benefits that come from, say, having no legs (right? You do get disability benefits for being in a wheelchair and other stuff like getting to live on the first floor of buildings? /callous), but a disability none-the-less.

College officials say such expulsions are not punitive; Halpern said Hunter's policy was aimed at protecting students' privacy and shielding them from schoolmates' prying eyes. At George Washington University in the nation's capital, spokeswoman Tracy Schario said the idea is to give suicidal students a break from the stresses of university life and encourage them to seek help.

But some activists suspect such evictions are an attempt by colleges to avoid legal liability if someone commits suicide in the dorms.

WHAT THE FUCKETY FUCK. A "break"? "From the stressed of university life"? Yep, because having to move all of your belongings from one location to another is CERTAINLY not stressful. Realizing that you're going to be in college for an EXTRA SEMESTER isn't stressful at all. Nor is figuring out if they're going to refund all of your housing money, or if you've somehow forfeited it by having the gall to try and get out of whatever shitty life situation you perceive yourself to be in.

And WHAT prying eyes? Those aren't going to be gone by taking a semester break. And it's not like having people whisper and titter about you is going to be something that' s new at that point. If anything, it would be more beneficial for students to have the option to stay in school, so they can be near there friends and not have a bunch of "real life" worries suddenly heaped onto their laps.

And, of course, nothing says "go get help!" to me more than being kicked out of somewhere. So what if it's not permanent? You've still been kicked out are a failure for not being able to complete uni in the typical four years.

I definitely buy that colleges are trying to cover their asses a lot more than I buy that they're actually looking out for students.

"The real danger of these policies is that they discourage students from getting the help that they really need," Bower said. Students might be scared from speaking out about suicidal thoughts if they believe it would mean eviction, she said.

The chances that a student might be expelled from a dorm simply for talking about suicide with a counselor are considered slim. Conversations with mental health professionals are generally confidential and protected by privacy laws.

It doesn't matter if the chances are slim. The point is that they are there. This is discouraging students from getting help. I have second thoughts, now, about going to the campus health center to talk to a shrink about my depression. I haven't read my housing agreement, I don't know if Northeastern does shit like this, but I'm not willing to take the chance, knowing how I react to living at home.

This has put me from getting basically free shrink visits to having to find someone off-campus and hope that my medical records from there aren't accessible by the school health center. And hope that I can afford it. So bullshit it's not discouraging students from seeking out help. If I knew about this six months ago, I never would've called the health center. Never.

Jordan Nott's issue with GWU basically proves my point that schools are making it a risk for students to get help, in order to cover their asses. The article says that a school official called Nott's case an "unusual one". Do they mean unusual as in it's the only one that they've heard of?

She acknowledged, however, that the university's current practice of using its disciplinary system to handle some students with psychological problems "does appear insensitive" and said other procedures were being considered.

Yep, let's punish sick people. I vote that we stop offering treatment on campus for things like colds. It's the student's fault anyway, for not washing his/her hands often enough! Yeah, it sounds ridiculous when put like that, doesn't it?

This is sick and disgusting. What the hell. What. The. Hell.

 

Comments

[cesario.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this has made me angry for a long time. I knew a guy who got expelled for a suicide attempt because it poisoned the community atmosphere or some shit.

Definitely not on.

[princessdot.livejournal.com]

I was in a way bad way. I had to go home where there was no access to therapy and no more meds. It... was not a good time for me. It would have been better to let me stay and continue with my therapy and meds, no?

[emiweebee.livejournal.com]

Colleges treat the mentally ill horribly. Suffer from clinical depression?...you'd better be in class with your work done, that doesn't necessarily count as a "disability". Attempt suicide? You're on your way to a mediocre hospital. In some cases, talk about your problems to the wrong, unprofessional mental health counselor? Have your concerns about your illness blown to the proportion you are involuntarily committed.

It's half students-best-interest, half college's-best-interests. They really just want to not have a suicide tarnish their record. And it must be working; my school had a suicide a year rate, which I'm pretty sure went to zero during the years I attended.