Dec 18, 2019, 3:06 PM
(From Schwartz Hannum PC) Recent court decisions address how much obligation educational institutions may have to prevent student suicides and how claims will be litigated. In Tang v. Harvard College, for example, plaintiffs alleged the university and some of its employees were negligent in their care of an undergraduate, who died by suicide on campus in 2015. The defendants denied culpability or asked to dismiss the case.
A Massachusetts Superior Court judge refused those motions and help open the the possibility that, even if a university follows a process labeled "suicide prevention protocol," it is possible that the university did not "properly discharge" its duties of care. Sarah H. Fay and Laura Deck Stone of Shwartz Hannum PC's Education Practice groups conclude that although both cases involved universities, these decisions are "highly relevant" to independent schools that act in loco parentis and owe a duty of care to their students.
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