Princeton Students Say They’re Afraid to Seek Help After Suicidal Freshman Was Forced Out

Two years after Princeton barred a suicidal undergraduate from campus, students say they worry that talking to mental health counselors will get them tossed out of school. “It’s a common attitude around campus that people are afraid to go to CPS because they’re worried they’ll get kicked out,” says 19-year-old sophomore Marni Morse, referring to the university’s Counseling and Psychological Services. “Students get this idea that they shouldn’t go get help.”

Conversations about mental health have become common on campus in response to a lawsuit filed in March by the student who attempted suicide in 2012. Then a freshman, the student, referred to in the suit as W.P., swallowed about 20 antidepressants. Almost immediately he sought help from the university’s health center, was transferred to a hospital, and began to recover. A few days later, according to the lawsuit, news from school administrators reached him in his hospital room: He could no longer attend classes, live in his dorm, or enter the campus.