Son student 3rd level ; bipolar ; incident ; med reports?

jmg1954

My son, age 34, is a student at a local university and is diagnosed Bipolar. He has been going through medication changes and his behavior is erratic. Last week he got into an accident, and road rage. He spent the night in jail. The university got information about his arrest and called him into Student Services. They asked for his medical records and were concerned about his behavior. My son says he has had no incidents at school. Oh, a teacher snooped on his FB page. Now the school wants him to see a school psychiatrist for a Risk Assessment. Can they do this? It feels like they want to expel him.

Always Tired

Yes, they actually have to do it to assess if he is a danger to students or staff or himself. And having the college deal with it is better than having the gardai deal with it. They will be more understanding, and are unlikely to expel him if he cooperates and works on his issues. It's a common thing they deal with and the first solutions considered is probably not going to be expulsion unless he harmed someone.

If he's going through a tough time maybe he needs a week off. He can emphasize that his meds were being changed and it was out of character for him. If expulsion comes up, and I think you're jumping the gun a bit thinking they are gonna go right to that, I doubt it very much, but obviously you would want to emphasize that that would hurt his mental state more.

No matter what issues he has he needs to understand that coming to the attention of the gardai is not a road a young man wants to start going down. Your card gets marked that first time and you'll never be given the benefit of the doubt in any subsequent dealings with them. If they aren't charging him and are instead getting the college involved that's actually very fair of them.

Wanderer78

Apologies, but I've no legal advice, but I've found third level mental health services to be very good, best of luck

Portsalon

jmg1954 wrote: »

My son, age 34, is a student at a local university and is diagnosed Bipolar. He has been going through medication changes and his behavior is erratic. Last week he got into an accident, and road rage. He spent the night in jail. The university got information about his arrest and called him into Student Services. They asked for his medical records and were concerned about his behavior. My son says he has had no incidents at school. Oh, a teacher snooped on his FB page. Now the school wants him to see a school psychiatrist for a Risk Assessment. Can they do this? It feels like they want to expel him.

Snooped?

Was his FB page open for all to read?

If so, what did his teacher do wrong?

jmg1954

Thank you all very much. Your comments have helped me put this in perspective.