Colleges and Mental Illness

In the wake of the Virginia Tech tragedy last week, On Point is taking a closer look today at how schools should balance privacy, public safety, and the rights of students and parents.

Here are some excerpts of what was said on the show:

"It's a very complicated area for colleges. For one thing, more and more students are appearing on campus with significant mental health problems which they don't have to disclose. Another thing is that you have several different kinds of privacy laws. These do have emergency health and safety exceptions but it's not quick or easy to know exactly what is gonna be such a serious thing that it is a health and safety exception." Tamar Lewin, education reporter for the New York Times

"I don't think that the information about students that are concerning just simply comes from sessions in therapy. Much of the information is often available in the student's life. So, part of what we need to be doing is making sure that there is good communication between us as counselors and other people who are working in the university and students that are concerned. ... We can and do act forcefully when we have information available and the danger is imminent." Alejandro Martinez, Director for counseling and psychological services at Stanford University

"There are definitely liability issues if indeed laws are broken in a sense by revealing information that is protected under the complicated and complex privacy laws. It's a very grey area and very difficult and complicated to sort through what the laws provide and how they're applied to the judgment calls that these mental health professionals need to make." Ada Meloy, director of legal and regulatory affairs, American Council on Education and former senior university counsel at New York University.

"Having these policies that unmedically place students on involuntary leave or suspend or expel them because they've sought treatment really sends the wrong message. First, it tells the students that there's something wrong with them and it inappropriately isolates them at a time of crisis and removes them from their support system. By discouraging students from getting help, it can actually increase the risk of harm for students themselves or others." Karen Bower, staff attorney, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law.

How do we strike the right balance between the rights of students and the safety of schools?  Where should a university draw the line?  At a violent English assignment?  At unwanted instant messages?