From the Editors

Colleges everywhere are faced with the question of parental notification. If you go downtown and you are drinking underage, do you want this school to call your parents to inform them of your actions? If you have to go to the infirmary for a repetitive illness, would you want that to be confidential or for your parents to be notified?
This is the question that will be plaguing a courtroom soon. There is a lawsuit that has made headlines recently about parental notification. According to an Associated Press article on CNN.com, the parents of a college student who attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are suing the school because they were not informed of their daughters mental health condition before she committed suicide.
This is a case that could possibly affect all college students in the United States. The law that currently stands prevents parents from being notified about the academic, disciplinary and health problems of their children. According to the article on CNN.com, “Congress amended that law in 1998 to specify that administrators could tell parents about alcohol and drug offences committed by students under 21.” All of this could change after the ruling on this case is made.
Both sides of the case may be seen. On one hand, we know that parents have more control over a situation in dealing with their children. They know their child in a way that a university doesn’t. On the other hand, some parents and their children do not have good relationships, hindering the young adult from wanting their parents to know everything about them.
If you were having a serious problem and you knew you could go to counseling services for help, but they would also contact your parents, would you go to get help or just try to deal with it yourself? To play devil’s advocate, if you were that counselor would you want to call the student’s parents?
There are so many questions and points of view surrounding this topic.
College students are generally considered adults and no longer require parental supervision. However, parents are always our parents, no matter how old we get.
If you have an opinion on this issue, I would like to hear it.
Please send your signed Letter to the Editor to colonnade@gcsu.edu. This is a topic that could affect our rights as college students.

Ann E. Dyar

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 8 2002. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry