Northern Michigan U. Compensates 4 Who Were Threatened With Punishment for Speaking of Suicide

Northern Michigan University has agreed to pay a total of $173,500 in damages to four current or former students who were threatened with punishment if they talked to their peers about their risk or thoughts of suicide.

The damages are part of a settlement reached with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. The student whose 2016 complaint prompted the department’s investigation said the university had discriminated against her because of her disability, threatening to “disenroll” her after she sent a chat message to a friend and fellow student at the university.

In that message, she said that she suffered from major depressive disorder and that her doctors were concerned she might kill herself. According to her complaint, the university also required that she undergo a psychological assessment and sign a behavioral agreement barring her from talking about suicidal thoughts with other students, including her dorm mates and friends.

The Justice Department identified three other current or former Northern Michigan students who said they had been threatened with similar penalties under the university’s policy relating to “student self-destructive behavior.”

In a written statement, the university said its earlier policy, which has since changed, “was based on then existing interpretation of law and was followed by many universities and colleges.” The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, the university said, later changed its interpretation and began investigating complaints.

The university’s statement added that it welcomed the clarification of federal policies. “NMU provides many services to students to ensure their well-being, and NMU has been recognized as one of the safest campuses in the country,” it said.

The settlement agreement requires the university to draft a disability nondiscrimination policy and to change a portion of the dean of students’ web page that addresses behavioral concerns. It must also develop a training program for faculty, staff, and administrators, and draft a policy with specific steps for accommodating students with disabilities.

The federal inquiry determined that the university’s dean of students’ office “took adverse action against NMU students with mental-health disabilities who did not pose an actual risk of serious self-harm,” the settlement said. “This action was precipitated, in some cases, by information the office received through the ‘Behavioral Concerns’ section of the dean of students’ web page, where anyone may anonymously report concerns.”

Federal law mandates that “no qualified individual with a disability will, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity,” the settlement states. Mental-health conditions such as major depressive disorder and anxiety disorder “that substantially limit major life activities like eating, sleeping, learning, concentrating, thinking, communicating, and interacting with others are disabilities,” according to the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Katerina Klawes said she is one of dozens of students who received threatening emails from the dean of students’ office who weren’t included in the settlement and won’t be receiving compensation.

Hers arrived in 2015 after she attended a counseling session to discuss the stress caused by a sexual assault the previous year, she said.

The email said administrators had been told that others were worried about her well-being. “Engaging in any discussion of suicidal or self-destructive thoughts or actions with other students interferes with, or can hinder, their pursuit of education and community,” the email stated. “It is important that you refrain from discussing these issues with other students and use the appropriate resources listed below. If you involve other students in suicidal or self-destructive thoughts or actions, you will face disciplinary action.”

Klawes said she was puzzled because she wasn’t suicidal at the time but was afraid that something she said in counseling might have led to that conclusion.

“After I received those threats, I closed myself off from all of my friends when I needed them the most,” she said in an interview on Monday. “I even stopped counseling, my grades suffered, and went into a downward spiral.” She paid about $2,000 to hire a lawyer and took an extra year and a half to graduate.

“I’m mostly upset by the fact that Northern Michigan University has not issued any apology or accepted any blame,” she said.

Klawes called on the university to change its policies in an online petition that drew 2,800 signatures in 48 hours.

She also contacted the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a national free-speech group that said the emails, which amounted to a gag order, violated the students’ rights and deprived them “of peer support at critical moments.”

Discouraging students from talking about suicidal thoughts only adds to the stigma felt by many who suffer from anxiety or depression, critics say.

Katherine Mangan writes about community colleges, completion efforts, and job training, as well as other topics in daily news. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMangan, or email her at katherine.mangan@chronicle.com.