During the two weeks she was hospitalized in a hospital on the American East Coast, the young Brazilian Hannah Neves did not have access to her cell phone. She was recovering after taking an aspirin overdose in depression. It was only after she was discharged that she read the email from Yale, the prestigious university where she was pursuing her degree in history. Neves discovered that she had been expelled.
The case of this young woman from Manaus is one of the key elements in the lawsuit filed by students against Yale. They accuse the institution of discriminating against students facing mental health issues.
This discrimination, they say, manifests itself in the pressure exerted by the administration for students to drop out of the course if they have psychological difficulties. There is a concern, they say, to maintain the image of an elite university, where only the best thrive. Founded in 1701, Yale, New Haven, Connecticut, is one of the oldest and most renowned schools in the USA.
Discrimination also appears when the university places obstacles for students to return, even after symptoms improve, which generates more trauma. They have to wait two semesters, take external courses, and generally go through interviews.
Neves preferred not to talk to the Sheet🇧🇷 The text of the lawsuit, however, details his experience. The Brazilian had a good performance in graduation, participating in theater groups and working as a volunteer at one of the Yale museums. She began to experience symptoms of depression, and in 2020, during her third year of graduation, when she was in her mid-20s, she overdosed on aspirin.
At the hospital where she was admitted, she was visited by three representatives from Yale, including a psychiatrist.
According to the lawsuit, the three pressured her to leave the course saying that “it would look bad” if she was expelled against her will. When she found out that she had been expelled, she also learned that the university gave her 72 hours to leave her dorm on campus; she could return only accompanied by a policeman, to collect her belongings. The situation was even more difficult because Neves was in the US on a student visa. Withdrawn from the course, she had only 15 days to return to Brazil.
She tried to come back the following semester, but was turned away. The university imposed a one-year wait. She returned in 2021 and, according to the lawsuit, has performed well. She should graduate next semester.
According to Deborah Dorfman, one of the attorneys representing the students, Yale violates a number of US laws — including statutes on disability, rehabilitation, housing, patient protection and access to treatment.
One of the problems, he says, is that Yale’s rules are rigid and do not adapt to exceptional cases, such as students with certain psychological conditions. “They are forced to leave the course, even when they don’t want to.” Executive director of Disability Rights Connecticut, Dorfman also says that students who manage to return to Yale are treated more rigorously than others.
In a note sent to Sheet, Yale management has stated that its rules are in compliance with all laws and regulations. “Nevertheless, we are working on changes suited to the emotional and financial well-being of students,” says the text. “Yale faculty, staff and leaders care deeply about our students. We recognize how harrowing and difficult it is for students to […] when they face mental health challenges.”
The lawsuit does not ask for financial compensation. Students insist that Yale change its rules to accommodate people with different profiles. Instead of forcing students to drop out of graduation, for example, the university could allow them to continue in the course, but with a reduced workload.
Rishi Mirchandani, who is also part of the lawsuit against the university, remembers that in the 1960s there was a movement at Yale to emphasize the rigor of teaching.
“There was the notion that a prestigious institution needs to be rigorous and inflexible. This resulted in systemic discrimination, for not taking into account that people learn in different ways and that students with learning difficulties can contribute to the academic community”, he says. . “One of the problems is that these rules were created for the student profile that existed at that time — all white people, from private schools and wealthy families. Yale is a different place now, more diverse, more international.”
Mirchandani is one of the founders of the NGO Elis for Rachael, created after the suicide of Rachael Shaw-Rosenbaum. The 18-year-old student even published reports on the internet about her fear of having to drop out of her course at Yale. “They created a binary system where you either take all the courses or you have to leave,” she says, adding that other universities offer better alternatives.
He had an experience similar to Neves’. He went through a psychiatric crisis that led to a hospital stay. To avoid expulsion, he applied for a temporary leave of absence. “After a few months, my doctors wanted me to go back to school. It was the next step in my recovery.” Yale, however, required him to wait a full year.
“They said it was too soon, even the doctors saying otherwise”, he says. Mirchandani returned and completed the course with the “summa cum laude” distinction given to outstanding performers.
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