Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by yummyfajitas | Hacker News Reader

Full thread

yummyfajitas

I don't blame colleges for this.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6259...

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2009/12/7/edwards-john-sui...

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/08/24/suicide

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/blog/a_suicid...

Similarly, if the legal system started allowing people with bad eyesight to sue car manufacturers over traffic accidents, I wouldn't blame car manufacturers for refusing to sell to people with glasses.

View on HN

Did you read those articles? The first one is bringing the suit alleging that the college didn't investigate a rape allegation, and the second one alleges the medical system failed by prescribing a dangerous combination of medicines. The third was settled for a very small amount, only slightly more than a year of tuition at private schools. And the last one was fairly absurd and unreasonable and was almost certainly dismissed. So I don't think your argument or analogy really works to support your argument that colleges have to fear losing millions in lawsuits to parents of unstable kids.

The first one is a lawsuit against a college for referring a crime victim to the police. That's exactly the reason I'd avoid high-risk students - colleges are already being sued for not doing the job of other industries (police work, medical system, etc). Why bring on a student at high risk of needing special help from other industries?

The risk is not just losing millions, but also bad publicity and legal costs. Big organizations are extremely risk averse.

i'm not really directly responding to you, but this thing about schools investigating rapes is absolutely fucking ridiculous to me.

if there's been a suspected rape, the police need to be called, not the school. rape is a crime, not something for school politics to get its hands on.

calling the real police deters real actual rape, and false accusations of rape, both of which can ruin lives.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com