Shouldering the blame

Parent Cafe
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<p>I’m fairly new to this site and want to bring up a touchy subject. You may have read a number of years ago a news article of the suicide of a student at a rigorous, prestigious university. The parents apparently pointed fingers at the university even so far as filing a lawsuit. I don’t know the student’s problem, but if it had anything to do with succeeding, can you really blame the university? Another issue in the article was whether a university official or physician should tell the parents if the student is having depression if the student requests confidentiality as a condition to discussing their problem with that individual. This may have been the bone of contention. Does anyone recall the details?</p>

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<p>Do you mean the Elizabeth Shin suicide at MIT in 2000?</p>

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<p>I also assumed the Elizabeth Shin suicide at MIT. That has had enormous ripples across the entire MIT community. (Among other things, the health questionnaire for incoming freshlings includes an entire page of mental health questions.) </p>

<p>During my time as a student at MIT, there were five suicides that I knew about (possibly others that I didn’t hear about). It continues to have a reputation for suicides, as do other schools. However, when you look at the rate for college students in general compared with the same-age non-college population, students appear to commit suicide less than non-students. I say <em>appear to</em> because it is difficult to get reliable statistics. Does it count as a student suicide if a student dropped out the month before, for example? I think most large universities have students committ suicide; usually it does not receive national press attention.</p>

<p>Under FERPA and other patient confidentiality laws, university officials pretty much can’t tell the parents anything about anything without student permission. </p>

<p>This links presents not only one of the articles that appeared in the national press, but also critiques the article nicely: <a href=“http://www.afsp.org/education/recommendations/3/13.html[/url]”>http://www.afsp.org/education/recommendations/3/13.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>This is from the August issue of The Tech, the MIT unofficial campus newspaper.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www-tech.mit.edu/V125/N30/shin71405.html[/url]”>http://www-tech.mit.edu/V125/N30/shin71405.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Teenage suicide is a risk for so many reasons–relationships, drugs, self-harm behaviors…
What was so sad with this case is that the girl spent the day with her parents. Its also so unusual for someone to burn themselves; quite an impulsive act or mistake</p>

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<p>Thanks for the responses. Maybe this is something I shouldn’t have posted out of respect for the family, but it was public knowledge. It’s something that should be discussed, but maybe in a more generic manner without refering to particular cases. Thanks again for the input.</p>

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<p>Article in the Boston Globe suggesting that Elizabeth Shin’s death might have been an accident.

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<p>More quotes:

</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/09/04/was_the_death_of_a_suicidal_mit_student_an_accident/?page=2[/url]”>http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/09/04/was_the_death_of_a_suicidal_mit_student_an_accident/?page=2&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I think it’s President Bush’s fault!</p>

<p>whoops! wrong thread!</p>