Abandoned? Meet a Student Suing Yale for Pressuring Those with Mental Health Needs to Withdraw

A group of current and former Yale students is suing the Ivy League university over what they say is systemic discrimination" against students struggling with mental health issues. In a lawsuit filed last week, they say school administrators routinely pressure students to withdraw from Yale rather than accommodating their mental health needs, a practice that disproportionately hurts students of color, those from poor or rural backgrounds and international students. For more, we speak with Alicia Abramson, a current Yale student and one of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit, who says she was pushed to withdraw while dealing with an eating disorder, depression and insomnia, which led her to lose her health insurance and most of her tuition. It certainly felt like Yale was abandoning me when I was in need of the most help," says Abramson. We also speak with attorney Monica Porter, with the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and Miriam Heyman, a researcher at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University.