Reply to Stanford Sued After Following Another Student Suicide

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Stanford Sued After Following Another Student Suicide"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It seems to me that this threatened punishment was excessively punitive and should not have been communicated by email given the prior notice the university had of her heightened stress AND suicidal thoughts. I think the university is at fault. Do I think it was an accident, of course not. Should she have admitted it and begged for forgiveness, maybe. But for all she had done for the university, she deserved a slip up. Her mistake just pales in comparison to all the positivity AND the victim was not asking for justice, he wanted the issue dropped. Shame of Stanford for using her as an example. I believe it was bullying. They had so many opportunities to protect her but chose to make an example out of her. If she had been a male football player, it would not have happened.[/quote]

If you just read the headlines, I can understand why many question the merits of the lawsuit.  .

But digging deeper, it's hard not to conclude that Stanford's handling of the case was overly punitive and inconsistent with their handling of other campus disciplinary cases.  That contributes to the mental health crisis on campus...the sense that discipline is arbitrary and unfair, and certain groups of students are protected by the university while others face more severe consequences. There's no question she shouldn't have poured coffee on the football player. Yet reading the details of how it was handled, I can't see how anyone can logically conclude that the university's actions and threats were appropriate. College kids aren't known for sound judgment...I get that there are lessons to be learned and responsibility to be taken, but I'm floored that anyone in the administration thought this approach was a sound way to produce those outcomes.  Clearly it wasn't.

One can only hope that this tragedy might lead to reform. Sadly, a lawsuit is sometimes what it takes for change to happen.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics