University Comes Under Fire for Policy Forbidding Students From Discussing Suicidal Thoughts
In the newest strange incident of college censorship, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is taking issue with Northern Michigan University (NMU)’s policy prohibiting students from talking to each other about suicide.
According to FIRE’s website, students at NMU may face disciplinary action if they are ever found to be sharing “self-destructive thoughts” with their peers. FIRE cited two instances where the university threatened to invoke its policy, one of them having occurred after the school’s Associate Dean of Students prohibited student Katerina Klawes from talking with friends about her thoughts after being sexually assaulted in 2015.
A similar incident occurred during a 2016 freshman orientation, where new students were told they could face “negative consequences if they discussed thoughts of self-harm with other students.”
“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,” NMU said in a mass email picked up by FIRE. “If you involve other students in suicidal or self-destructive thoughts or actions you will face disciplinary action.”
Klaus started a petition to get the school to change its policies, but even though the school was said to have promised to consider the matter, their policy was never changed.
“NMU is imposing a gag order on students at a time when a conversation with a friend may be most needed,” said FIRE Senior Program Officer Marieke Tuthill Beck-Coon. “Preventing students from simply reaching out to each other for help cuts off the most basic exercise of the right to speak freely.”
[Image via Wikimedia / Bobak Ha’Eri]
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