<p>Sheeeshh. </p>
<p>Boca</a> dad files suit against Cornell for son's death - Sun Sentinel</p>
<p>This was a big issue in the town next to ours, after a young woman jumped from a bridge. Barriers have since been put up, after a lawsuit was threatened. Not that unusual to take this kind of action. It may seem to be misplaced blame, but it is possible that this parent actually does not want another person to die in the same way.</p>
<p>Hey, in America that is how we roll:</p>
<p>“Scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved, sooner or later, into a judicial question.” - Toqueville 1832</p>
<p>He’s suing for $180 million! </p>
<p>*Bradley Ginsburg, 18, a 2009 graduate of West Boca High and an economics major at the university, jumped to his death in February 2010. Two other students jumped to their deaths in the weeks following his death.</p>
<p>The suicides could have been prevented with barriers, nets under the bridges and other safety measures, Ginsburg’s father, Howard Ginsburg, said Friday.</p>
<p>“I’ve equated this to leaving a loaded gun on the table,” said Ginsburg, a Cornell graduate. “Cornell for years fought putting any kind of barriers on the bridges, for environmental reasons, the gorgeous views.”</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>He’s equating a bridge with a loaded gun? what the heck does he equate a car to? </p>
<p>Nets under bridges? is he serious? maybe trampolines as well. </p>
<p>While I understand that this is a grieving parent, the bottom line is that someone determined to commit suicide will do so…by running a car in a closed garage, by overdose, by hanging with a belt, jumping out of an academic building, etc, etc. are those things all loaded guns as well?</p>
<p>^ ^</p>
<p>Lawsuit amounts are often extraordinarily large because they function like starting points in negotiations. It is exceedingly rare for plaintiffs get what they initially sue for…the amounts tend to get reduced through arbitration/mediation settlement negotiations, judicial reduction in awards, and judicial/juror decision to dismiss counts which correspondingly reduce the final award amounts. </p>
<p>That is…assuming the lawsuit is not dismissed outright…</p>
<p>I hope Cornell doesn’t settle. I guess this a variation of the legal “attractive nuisance” doctrine! And proximate cause? The bridge…or the son’s unfortunate emotional health???</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it is not a matter of the bridge. This young man wanted to end his life. If it wasn’t the bridge, he would have used another mechanism to end his life.</p>
<p>The bigger issue is what was going on in this young man’s life that he had such feelings of helplessness to the extent that the only way out was to end his life?</p>
<p>He should have convinced his son to stay in Florida, where there are no bridges high enough to commit suicide off of.</p>
<p>Also, if he can sue the school, can the parents of the other students that committed suicide in the weeks following his son’s death turn around and sue him?</p>
<p>If schools become liable for these situations, then they may respond by insisting that applicants submit some kind of psych analysis before acceptance…and then you’d hear more howls from families upset that their depressed-identified child (or whatever) has been denied solely due to mental health.</p>
<p>I’m hurting my brain here trying to remember this and maybe someone can remember better than I, but sometime in the late 1970’s Cornell did put up barriers on the bridge. Almost everyone was terribly upset by that, it did really ruin the look, feel, and view. Cornell does not have the most number of college suicides, it just has the “fanciest” and most public suicides.</p>
<p>Put up a barrier and all you’re doing is giving the student an extra few feet to jump off of. The kid walked to the bridge- climbing up another few feet is not going to magically make him “snap out of” the severe hopelessness and depression that caused him to end his life. The fact that his dad thinks this (that a few feet would have stopped the “impulse” to jump) shows me that he has no idea what it’s like to be in that state of mind.</p>
<p>I know people who know this family and this boy. People have wondered if he was drinking and playing around. The family is devastated.</p>
<p>After the suicide at Caltech, people wanted to limit access to the roofs of the Houses. At MIT, limiting the tunnels. All these schools have tried to raise awareness of counseling centers, and educate students to signs of depression and suicidality.</p>
<p>Its a tragedy when a young person dies, nomatter how.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>At least 130 people have committed suicide by jumping from the The Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida,</p>
<p>The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco has had more suicides than any other in the world but the Sunshine Skyway Bridge is fourth.</p>
<p>I was a student at Cornell in the 70s, and my daughter graduated from Cornell last year, so I have seen the bridges in several stages of barrier development.</p>
<p>The bridge barriers that were put up in the 1970s, and that were in place when this young man died, were intended to prevent deaths resulting from drinking and playing around. They stopped people from sitting or standing on the bridge walls, which is something people used to do before the barriers went up. They would not have deterred a suicide.</p>
<p>The new barriers – which, by the way, are hideous – are intended to deter suicides.</p>
<p>xiggi,</p>
<p>After I posted that, I assumed Tampa Bay might have a bridge big enough to jump off of.</p>
<p>I’m from Upstate NY, and know the geography of the Finger Lakes region well. I also lived in Florida for half my life. Basically, there are no bridges above large gorges in Florida…I’m fairly sure of that :-)</p>
<p>Most of us knew it was a joke anyway. And not a bad one.</p>
<p>Not a bad joke?</p>
<p>
I understand the family is devastated, but why resort to a law suit? This is someone who needs to follow the 5 steps of bereavement; a lawsuit tells me they may be stuck on anger.</p>
<p>-Denial -Anger -Bargaining -Sadness/Depression -Acceptance/Resolution</p>
<p>People who haven’t experienced loss should not pass judgement.</p>
<p>If a lawsuit can stop one young person from taking his/her life, it would be worth it.</p>
<p>Blocking access to means to commit suicide often does save lives.</p>
<p>For example: </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[Golden</a> Gate Bridge Suicide Barrier-Psychiatric Foundation of Northern California](<a href=“http://www.pfnc.org/bridge/index.aspx]Golden”>http://www.pfnc.org/bridge/index.aspx)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[Means</a> Reduction Saves Lives - Means Matter Basics - Means Matter - Harvard School of Public Health](<a href=“http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/means-matter/saves-lives/index.html]Means”>http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/means-matter/saves-lives/index.html)</p>