You're not going to find anyone who's more personally invested in the subject of today's Ninth Circuit opinion than me. Trust me on that one. I care deeply about being informed when a student self-reports themselves to mental health authorities for homicidal ideation about killing one of their professors, and have personal experience with the subject. I am in full agreement with (1) the authorities informing the (potential) target of the threat against their lives, and (2) the University taking the matter seriously and attempting to protect the professor.
But if what's in the opinion accurately recites what went down here, I gotta say, I'm disappointed.
A nursing student had intrusive thoughts about killing three of his professors. So he did what I'm sure we all would want him to do -- he went to a doctor, told him about these thoughts, and voluntarily agreed to be admitted to a mental health facility, where he stayed for four days. After treatment, his doctors agreed when he was discharged that the student presented no threat to himself or others.
So far, so good, right? Exactly how we would want the thing to play out.
Eventually, word leaks back to the student's school -- Columbia Basin College -- that the student had these thoughts. The opinion doesn't say how the college found out, but I'm fairly sure that the doctors told the professors about the student's homicidal ideations, at which point one or more of the professors -- understandably -- told the college.
At that point, the college (1) barred the student from campus, (2) failed him in all his ongoing classes, and (3) expelled him from the nursing program.
That seems super harsh. As well as counterproductive to any effort to make sure that students self-report if they ever have similar intrusive thoughts. (Which is something we really, really want.)
The student sues, and since it's a state-sponsored college, there's an 11th Amendment problem, which ultimately leads (in an earlier opinion) to the Ninth Circuit finding that qualified immunity exists on the student's claim for damages. As a result, all that's left is the student's claims for injunctive relief; that he be permitted to finish nursing school, and that his failing grades and college discipline be removed from his transcript.
Knowing only what I know from the opinion, were I the college, I'd be more than fine with that. Maybe I would be super careful about security. But the student self-reported, never harmed anyone, and never even made a public threat to harm anyone. If he's indeed okay at this point, what's the harm in letting him finish nursing school if he can indeed master the subjects and competently treat patients?
Instead, the college continues to litigate the case. A lawsuit that's now gone on for five years, and counting.
The college continues to have all sorts of procedural challenges to the lawsuit, but the Ninth Circuit largely rejects the college's (second) interlocutory appeal. As well as awards costs to the student.
The lawsuit's far from over. But my hope is that it doesn't continue much longer. There's got to be a way to successfully resolve this thing in a manner that's far less wasteful of private and public resources than continued litigation. The lawsuit's already gone on far too long, IMHO.
Don't think about killing your professors. If and when you do, seek help. And if and when a student does so, if you're a college, try to help them further.
That seems like the appropriate way to go.
