Word: rutnam
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Thoughts of suicide haunted Anita Rutnam long before she arrived at Syracuse University. The Winchester, Mass., teenager had a history of mental illness and had even attempted to kill herself. During her junior year of college, she tried again. On a February morning in 1998, just days after a campus counselor recommended she be hospitalized for her suicidal tendencies, Rutnam threw herself off the eighth floor of a Syracuse dormitory and fell 90 ft. to the patio below...
Miraculously, she survived the plunge. But three years later, Rutnam still feels the effects of that day. She walks with a limp, has not been able to finish college--and is suing her former school for malpractice and negligence. Her suit, which is awaiting trial, asserts that, given the campus counselor's advice, school officials should have done more to prevent her suicide attempt...
Legal experts say it's still unclear whether colleges can be held liable for failing to help students like Anita Rutnam. A key issue is whether school administrations are expected to act in loco parentis. Unlike a parent-child relationship, "there is no special relationship between university officials and a student that imposes duty [to protect students]," contends Jerry Meek, a Dallas-based malpractice lawyer. Without proving that such a duty to students exists, it will be difficult for any plaintiff to claim successfully that it was breached...
...Miraculously, she survived the plunge. But three years later, Rutnam still feels the effects of that day. She walks with a limp, has not been able to finish college - and is suing her former school for malpractice and negligence. Her suit, which is awaiting trial, asserts that, given the campus counselor's advice, school officials should have done more to prevent her suicide attempt...
...Legal experts say it's still unclear whether colleges can be held liable for failing to help students like Anita Rutnam. A key issue is whether school administrations are expected to act in loco parentis. Unlike a parent-child relationship, "there is no special relationship between university officials and a student that imposes duty (to protect students)," contends Jerry Meek, a Dallas-based malpractice lawyer. Without proving that such a duty to students exists, it will be difficult for any plaintiff to claim successfully that it was breached...