{"id":151,"date":"2009-08-27T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-27T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/can-you-sue-for-anorexia-apparently-yes-but-should-you.html"},"modified":"2009-08-27T08:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-08-27T08:00:00","slug":"can-you-sue-for-anorexia-apparently-yes-but-should-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/08\/can-you-sue-for-anorexia-apparently-yes-but-should-you.html","title":{"rendered":"Can You Sue For Anorexia? Apparently, Yes. But Should You?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"anorexia<\/a><\/span>Last week, the
\nAssociated Press reported the story of a Pittsburgh mother<\/a> who is suing her
\ndaughter’s school district under Title IX after her daughter developed an eating disorder. The
\ndisorder, she claims, came about because of bullying by boys in her daughter’s
\nclasses – bullying the school district failed to prevent or address. The school denies all
\nresponsibility in this sad case, but I wonder if they ought to own up to at
\nleast some<\/i> liability.<\/p>\n

To quote the article:<\/span><\/p>\n

“With eating disorders, we say you’re born
\nwith a gun and life pulls the trigger,” <\/i>said Lynn Grefe, chief executive
\nofficer of Seattle-based NEDA<\/a>
\n(National Eating Disorders Association), who has never heard of a school being
\nsued over such a scenario. Generally, people who develop anorexia already have
\nissues with anxiety, obsessive-compulsive or perfectionist behavior. Bullying
\ncould trigger anorexia in those people but not others who are taunted about
\ntheir weight, Grefe said.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hm. Well, I’m not sure if this is exactly a fair analogy,
\nbut I was born with a tendency to react strongly to trauma, but I still sued
\nthe crap out of my high school when I had an accident in shop class<\/a> due to
\ntheir negligence and subsequently suffered PTSD.<\/span><\/p>\n

I figure they’ve got to take into account that at least some<\/i> percentage of their student body
\nwill be extra sensitive to taunts about weight – heck, according to some stats
\nI found<\/a>, as many as 10 million U.S. women (and 1 million men) are suffering
\nwith eating disorders at any given time.<\/span><\/p>\n

As someone who has struggled with body image issues for many
\nyears, I know how easy it is to take in messages from one’s peers (and from
\nsociety at large) that one is unacceptable. It’s a small leap from a young girl’s
\nbeing told she’s no good the way she is to her starving herself into acceptability.
\nWhether it’s the school’s job to anticipate this as a possible consequence of a
\nfew mean boys’ bullying behavior, and whether this is truly a Title IX case, I don’t feel qualified to answer, but I
\nsuspect the purpose of the suit is more to bring attention to the issue than to
\ntruly expect the district to take full responsibility for the girl’s disease.<\/span><\/p>\n

In sum, I think this Pittsburgh mom’s going to have the
\ndevil of a time proving her case in court, but I am glad she brought it,
\nwhether she wins or not. Maybe next time the school’s counselors will make more
\nof an effort to intervene when students are being bullied. <\/span><\/p>\n

What’s your take? Is this a frivolous lawsuit or was she one righteous mama?<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n


<\/b><\/p>\n

Subscribe to receive updates from Everyday Ethics or follow us on Twitter<\/a>!<\/strong> <\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, the Associated Press reported the story of a Pittsburgh mother who is suing her daughter’s school district under Title IX after her daughter developed an eating disorder. The disorder, she claims, came about because of bullying by boys in her daughter’s classes – bullying the school district failed to prevent or address. The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,16,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-hillary-fields","category-legal-ethics","category-parenting-responsibility"],"yoast_head":"\nCan You Sue For Anorexia? Apparently, Yes. 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She attended St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she studied classics and philosophy, and then respectfully declined to spend the rest of her life in an ivory tower. Instead, she turned to the life of a writer and editor, penning three romance novels published by St. Martin's Press and contributing features to such periodicals as Cosmopolitan magazine. Her fascination with the moral dilemmas that crop up in everyday life--and the many intriguing ways people handle them--has always colored her writings. Now, that interest is leading her to take the discussion online; where, hopefully, the addition of reader feedback will bring these quotidian quandaries--and their potential solutions--vibrantly to life. When she's not plumbing the ethical mysteries of humanity, her passions include cooking (especially baking), origami, kittens, reading, watching really bad television and playing online scrabble. (And no, she doesn't cheat... much.)","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/hfields"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}