BOSTON — Massachusetts’ highest court is stepping into a fight over whether colleges and universities can be held liable when students kill themselves on campus.
The Supreme Judicial Court will hear arguments Tuesday in the case brought by the family of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate student who jumped off a building to his death in 2009.
Han Nguyen’s family says MIT is responsible for his death because it knew he was a suicide risk, but failed to get him the help he needed. His family says MIT had a legal duty to protect Nguyen from harm.
MIT and other schools are raising alarm about the case. No other state Supreme Court has found that schools have a legal duty to prevent student suicides.