Well, for those of you unfamiliar look at this thread .

College started back up this year, with me psyched about graduating and basically the first week has been a blast. But now the trouble begins yet again. I got a call from my parents today stating they recieved a letter from the college that stated that my parents should pay a certain amount of the hospital bill for my stay there or else my scholarship will be revoked. Also, by paying this amount, we will be agreeing that I indeed did have an alcohol problem and that I DID need professional help (which I did not).

I cannot begin to express how much my blood boils over this! Apparently, my university feels that getting drunk once a month is a clear indication of an alcohol problem, and feels the need to go all out on this. I was content with it be swept under the rug... I like my college, I've grown alot here mentally and morally, and with all the bad press my college got last year I'd hate to see it get more bad press because of this current extortion threat.

What makes it bad for them is the fact that my family's lawyer has informed us that the incident was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He told me that basically, they and the hospital had no right to question me and make determinations about my mental health whithout my hearing aids in. So in the end, it really would seem that it would be in the college's best interest to settle and pay the measily $1600 on the bill and be thankful that we havent yet tried to go for damages.

Why do people have to be so ignorant? Once they open the door for this, they're asking for lots of trouble. I mean, as a writer for the campus paper and an intern at the local TV station, it'd be no problem for me to make the story public and generate more bad press. I wouldnt want to, but it is a tool at my disposal.

Likewise, the Drug and Alcohol counselor who had me admitted STILL has her job, which because of this recent event I am petitioning for her removal based on the fact that she has shown not only poor judgement, but the inability to help the real alcoholics (the same weekend I was commited, a frat president threw a dog off the bridge, which was covered nationally).

Bah.. thanks for listening to my rant... I had to get it out as I just heard of this letter before I came into work just now.

wow, read the other thread and this one. sounds like you have some corrupt (or just reality-impaired) officials at your college.

i can't believe they would want you to pay the hospital bill....that is outrageous. they seem to be hardlining it and it sounds like they aren't going to back off. tough sitch you are in......were i in you position I would try to sue or something like that, the ada is not to be trampled on lightly, you know? but anyway.....hope things get better for you or you find some solution.

trinity

Wow, Thats a really tough break!

I'm glad I'm in the UK.

A little story:
Back when I was 17 some of my mates and I managed to get the money together for some heavy drink (Vodka, Whisky, Tequila), turned up at this collage party type thing and got totally plastered.

Two of my friends got drunk, very drunk and seriously ill, ended up in hospital having their stomachs pumped (we where young and stupid), they got suspended for a week. Thats it no bills no news, nothing.

Diffrent Worlds.

carrja99, what did happen? Were you hospitalized? Isn't that cinda serious? Maby you should take a a little bit more slowly. Not that i'm agreeing with your collage.

Read the other thread, It explains things.

This collage is way outta line!

Ok sorry. I was under the impression that you were hospitalized because of some heavy drinking. But you were because of the misunderstanding you stated in that other post.
This indeed is outrageous

Totally outrageous. On the one hand, the college did some serious arse covering (if you really had a problem and did commit suicide, your parents and the other parents outcry and legal action would have closed them down) on the other hand, they went totally overboard. I think that some legal action is necessary, not for money but to have them publicise their methods and force the college to change their methods. It would seem that if someone in a responsible position had talked to you (maybe a campus doctor or nurse) this could have been cleared up immediately.

I suspect that your college has no procedures in place for attempted suicide - start something to make them acknowledge this and to make them get some.

Luckily I live in the UK, getting wasted with teachers is ine of the perks of the British education system!

Carrja99,

I am afraid the only recourse for your family and you are to counter-sue. The counter-suit will show the school what exactly they stand to loose if they don't back down. They have their lawyers working on this, you and your family have to fight the same way.

I would suggest writing an article for the local paper documenting what has occured. Don't use your school paper, though.

Michael

I don't think your "freedoms" or "civil liberties" were trampled on here, as the Bill of Rights is designed to protect you from government infringement, not that of your "concerned neighbors." It kind of reminds me of co-workers I had who would cry the first amendment every time the boss told them to work more and talk less. At any rate, it would be helpful to know if your school is private or publicly-funded.

You would have a difficult time with the lawsuit, considering you did go voluntarily to the hospital, and you did admit yourself voluntarily. Lying is not illegal. People can come to your door and say whatever they want to you. They can ask you to come to the moon with them. That's no illegal. Your only traction would be if they lied to you acting as agents of the school, in which case maybe you could file complaints against them - to the school administration - individually. Either way, complain to the school.

Being young and ignorant of your own rights is no excuse, nor for these is there a different standard for fraud. Ask yourself this : what are my damages? And did these damages come about by way of force or fraud from another party? By "damages" I don't mean $1.6 million for pain-and-suffering. I mean... real damages. If you really think you have something, go for a lawsuit. Remember : you can sue for anything -- it doesn't mean a lawyer will take your case and it surely doesn't mean you'll win. But go for it.

Personally, I would look at it as a learning experience... life is full of them. You can take a moment to reflect and extract wisdom from these or you can take that same moment and look for someone to blame.

I've been in a dorm and I've been in jail. They both look very similar. They smell the same and they look the same and they feel the same. If you like the idea of being an individual and you like liberty - if you would enjoy the opportunity to hang yourself in privacy, then live off campus and don't forget to vote libertarian. If you are a bleeding-heart commie liberal progressive intellectual and you like being institutionalized and you like compulsory sharing and caring and having "the community" do an "intervention," live on campus.

Look at it this way : by living in a dorm you are voluntarily institutionalizing yourself. You are subjecting yourself to all manner of intrusion. All you did was willingly go from one institution to another for a brief time

Well, instead of just writing my university's administration off as a bunch of scumbags, I went down and had a talk with the guy. After a long discussion I came to learn that, even though I signed a privacy release form, the hospital never did give them access to the documents they needed.

Of course, they should have told me if they had problems with the hospital, but they instead made thier judgement based on little information that was particularly biased (the gung-ho Drug and Alcohol Councilor). He informed me that if I could get them the statements form the doctors who met with me, it would really help them reconciliate our points of view.

I got the statements today and turned them in. Haven't heard from them yet, but from what I read on the reports, it seems they should have no problem seeing that I was commited on false pretenses.

Oddly enough, the Emergency Room report indicated that I was calm, pleasent, cooperative, and showed no signs of immidiate distress or acute depression. Then why was it recommend that I be commited to the psyche ward for evaluation?

As for the reports from the doctors, not only do they comment on the fact that I show no signs of depression or alcoholism, they also comment that I possess above average intelligence!! How nice!