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2015 BYU Educ. & L.J. 227 (2015)
Balancing Prevention and Liability: The Use of Waiver to Limit University Liability for Student Suicide

handle is hein.journals/byuelj2015 and id is 241 raw text is: BALANCING PREVENTION AND LIABILITY: THE USE OF WAIVER TO LIMIT UNIVERSITY LIABILITY FOR STUDENT SUICIDE Brittney Kern* I. INTRODUCTION When Ms. Li's son started university in the fall of 2013, Ms. Li was shocked when her son was asked to sign a student management and self discipline agreement, which freed the university from any liability if a student were to commit suicide or suffer self-inflicted injuries.1 The City College of Dongguan University of Technology, located in the Guangdong providence of China, asked its 5,000 incoming freshman to sign the contract due, at least in part, to the staggering suicide rates that China has seen in the past years.2 And the City College is not the first to make this request of its students; Shandong Jianzhu University, also located in China, requested that its 20,000 students sign a similar waiver of liability in November of 2010.3 According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, 38,364 suicides were reported in the United States in 2010, equating to a death by suicide every 13.7 minutes.4 * Law Clerk to the Honorable James M. McMaster, Bucks County Court of Common Pleas. J.D. 2014, Michigan State University College of Law; B.A. 2011, The Pennsylvania State University. The author thanks Professor Daniel Barnhizer for his support and feedback in the formulating and drafting of this Article. The author also thanks the staff of the Brigham Young Education and Law Journal for their help in publishing this piece. 1 Chengcheng Jiang, Chinese University Asks Students to Sign 'Suicide Waivers Time (Sept. 17, 2013), http://world.time.com/2013/09/17/chinese-university- asks-students-to-sign-suicide-waivers/?hpt=hpj3; Abby Kloppenburg, Chinese university asks students to sign 'suicide waiver', USA TODAY (Sep. 20, 2013, 11:27 AM), http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/09/20/suicide-waiver-chinese- college/2841879/. 2 See Jiang, supra note 1; Kloppenburg, supra note 1. 3 Raymond Li, University attacked for suicide waiver, SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST (Nov. 10 2010, 12:00 AM), http://www.scmp.com/article/729980/university- attacked-suicide -waiver. 4 Facts and Figures, AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION, 227

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