This makes sense but there will be plenty of people who won’t agree.

Scott Jaschik writes at Inside Higher Ed.

Do Colleges Have a Duty to Protect Students?

A California appeals court has ruled, 2 to 1, that public colleges and universities do not have a general legal obligation to protect adult students from violent acts by other students.

The ruling throws out a lawsuit against the University of California by Katherine Rosen, a former student at the University of California at Los Angeles who in 2009 was stabbed and had her throat slashed by a fellow student in a chemistry lab. The suit charged that UCLA didn’t do enough to protect students, even as it learned of the serious mental health issues faced by the student who committed the stabbing. That student, Damon Thompson, who was charged in the attack, was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

The ruling is based on California and not federal law. But it comes at a time of increased public debate over the responsibilities of colleges to protect students.

Prior to the attack on Rosen, UCLA treated Thompson for symptoms indicating a schizophrenia-related disorder, including hallucinations and paranoid thinking. The suit centered on whether UCLA did enough, knowing of Thompson’s conditions, to protect Rosen.

But the appeals court focused instead on prior legal rulings suggesting that while public elementary and secondary schools assume an obligation under California law to protect their students, public colleges and universities do not. The court noted that attendance at college is not required.

“We find no basis to depart from the settled rule that institutions of higher education have no duty to their adult students to protect them against the criminal acts of third persons,” the appeals court decision said. “The conduct at issue here — a violent crime perpetrated by an individual suffering from mental illness — is a societal problem not limited to the college setting.”

Further, the court ruled that it wasn’t relevant whether UCLA might have known that an attack was possible or even likely.