The Supreme Judicial Court today dismissed a wrongful-death suit by the father of an MIT graduate student who threw himself off the roof of a campus building, saying that while colleges do have some unique obligations to protect their students, there are limits to what they can be expected to do, in an age in which students, especially at the graduate level, expect to be treated as adults with rights, including that of privacy.

Han Duy Nguyen died in 2009 while a student at MIT's Sloan School, several months after he first sought and then rejected help for his difficulties in test taking, and as he was receiving off-campus counseling and even shock treatment. Nguyen had twice tried to commit suicide, but the last attempt was more than a year before he entered the Sloan School, and neither on-campus counselors nor a Mass. General doctor he was seeing felt he was feeling suicidal at the time.

In its ruling, the state's highest court said colleges do have an obligation to their young charges. But at the same time, they are legally adults, so the question becomes how to balance university responsibilities and student rights. The court detailed Nguyen's interactions with an MIT associate dean and two professors in the months before his death:

Nguyen never communicated by words or actions to any MIT employee that he had stated plans or intentions to commit suicide, and any prior suicide attempts occurred well over a year before matriculation. He also was a twenty-five year old adult graduate student living off campus, not a young student living in a campus dormitory under daily observation. Nguyen repeatedly made clear that he wanted to keep his mental health issues separate from his academic performance problems and that he was seeking professional help from psychiatrists and psychologists outside the MIT Mental Health system. Additionally, although Nguyen had frequent suicidal thoughts, which, in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, can be read as present not past suicidal thoughts, Nguyen denied suicidal ideation in 2007. Thus, [Assistant Dean David] Randall had no actual knowledge of Nguyen having attempted suicide while enrolled at or recently before matriculating to MIT, or whether Nguyen had stated plans or intentions to commit suicide. Consequently, Randall had no special relationship with Nguyen and thus no duty to take reasonable measures to prevent Nguyen's suicide two years before his death. Nonetheless, Randall properly encouraged Nguyen to seek professional help at MIT, which Nguyen, as was his right, refused. Nguyen also informed Randall that he was seeking professional help elsewhere and Randall sought permission to communicate with that psychiatrist, which Nguyen allowed and then promptly revoked. Finally, Randall invited further conversations with Nguyen, which he declined. That being said, Randall left Nguyen in the care of competent outside professionals as Nguyen demanded. In these circumstances, as a matter of law, a twenty-five year old graduate student's rights to privacy, autonomy, and self determination were properly respected.

In considering his case, the court drew up some guidelines for institutions of higher learning: