Venting The UW (University of Waterloo) campus police trying to bait student into a psych hold

[TAW122]

I've come across this comment/post on Reddit and it is infuriating as hell! So basically, an UW student from Canada asked a serious question about in whether it is better etiquette to CTB without notice or say his goodbyes before he CTB'd. He even explicitly stated he wasn't looking or crying for help and wanted an honest opinion. However, not only did he not get his (legitimate) question answered, he was instructed to contact the police and/or suicide prevention/mental health related hotlines. He replied politely that he was NOT in any imminent danger and even politely thanked the officer for reaching out. Oh! but the officer not only willingly ignore his comments and question, but even go as far as to ask the student to stop by the campus police department! Do you know what this means? It means that had the student done so, he would be detained and then hauled off to a psych hold for evaluation. Seriously, fuck that shit!

Oh it gets even better... The comments out there are overwhelmingly pro-life and anti-choice, not surprising though. Here is a fun one by u/Ratatouille2016

Hi there, listen to me emotions can be also caused by the chemicals in our brains. Or in a lot of cases the lack of them. Maybe what you need is a change of diet, to boost tryptophan and serotonin levels, more time in the sun (which I know can be hard given where you live). I think a change in your diet could definitely change your look on life...Tryptophan occurs naturally in the following foods: Oats, bananas, chickpeas, beans, nuts, seafoods and poultry. Tryptophan is an amino acid that your body uses to produce this hormone called serotonin which provides with a feel good sensation. Also try to get good quality sleep at night. Exercise daily that also should boost your mood. Still I'm writing this here, hoping it isn't too late or that this may help anyone else reading this that may be feeling the same way you do...

Lmfao, this has got to be one of the most asinine deflections I have ever read about the topic. I'm not saying that chemical changes and diet changes aren't factors, but to suddenly bring it up and ignore what the OP has asked for, well that's just trash.

What are your thoughts on this? Personally I think it's an overreach by campus police and pro-life anti-choice society. While I get that they don't want to end up with a lawsuit or get bad publicity, I still don't like the fact that officer not only didn't answer the question, but even as far as to suggest the student show up in person at the campus police department just to (potentially) be detained and treated like a criminal. So repulsive imho.

 

[autumnal]

I'm not quite sure what else you were expecting here

The officer is not expected to answer the theoretical question about saying goodbyes, and frankly it would be quite unprofessional for them to do so in their official capacity. Police are there to prevent crime, enforce the law and protect life. It was this last duty he was doing in his responses to the student.

You may wish to ponder about whether police or indeed society has the moral right to stop someone committing suicide, but that is all at a fairly abstract level of debate. In the practical reality of this instance, the officer was simply trying to deter a student at their university from committing suicide. From what I can see, there is absolutely nothing unusual or unique about this occurrence. The officer's responses were measured, non-judgemental and polite.

A psych hold is a civil rather than criminal procedure, although I'm sure you probably knew that at some level and were just using hyperbole.

As for your critique of the other user responses, their suggesting something simplistic like dietary change is probably well intentioned but certainly ignorant of the complex interplay of factors leading to depression and suicidality. But again, there is nothing particularly shocking about this having occurred.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest your dramatic reaction to these events probably has more to do with you than with what actually happened.

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

Not the first time LE dangled bait at a "criminal."

 

[RedDEE]

Reddit sucks dude. It's full of middle class college kids with rich daddies, that have never had a real struggle in their life. They are "pro-social", liberal, and "morally correct". Reddit has a major superiority complex.

The average reddit user works his 9-5 job sitting at a computer, making 50k a year, and comes home to a beautiful wife and kids. This is generally speaking. Reddit is the worst online community by far - they are all basically fake as fuck.

Reddit's opinion is that if you're not dieing of incurable cancer and are in excruciating pain, you have no right to kill yourself. Idiots, a bunch of stuck up ignorant bitches.

This site is the best community for opinions regarding suicide, as they are the most realistic. The popular opinion here is you have a right to kill yourself because your life is your own, but you shouldn't if there's hope but you can. And here's some information on how to do it right if you want to because if you're gonna do it, do it right. And that's reasonable.

 

[jgm63]

I'm not quite sure what else you were expecting here

The officer is not expected to answer the theoretical question about saying goodbyes, and frankly it would be quite unprofessional for them to do so in their official capacity. Police are there to prevent crime, enforce the law and protect life. It was this last duty he was doing in his responses to the student.

You may wish to ponder about whether police or indeed society has the moral right to stop someone committing suicide, but that is all at a fairly abstract level of debate. In the practical reality of this instance, the officer was simply trying to deter a student at their university from committing suicide. From what I can see, there is absolutely nothing unusual or unique about this occurrence. The officer's responses were measured, non-judgemental and polite.

A psych hold is a civil rather than criminal procedure, although I'm sure you probably knew that at some level and were just using hyperbole.

As for your critique of the other user responses, their suggesting something simplistic like dietary change is probably well intentioned but certainly ignorant of the complex interplay of factors leading to depression and suicidality. But again, there is nothing particularly shocking about this having occurred.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest your dramatic reaction to these events probably has more to do with you than with what actually happened.

This.
The officer has a job to do, and is doing his job.
Debating whether society-at-large should have different values and laws, etc, is a valid discussion, but we can't blame individual people, who are operating under the current laws that are in place....
The dietary advice ? It was well meaning, and might help some people, and might be of very little help to many people....

 

[s1mplem3]

This is like when a mute sings to a deaf. Don't expect people to understand your feelings and be careful, cause they could do something against your will.

 

[BabyYoda]

Does this mean that if the student goes the police department, the authorities will have to inform the student's parents that they're in "danger" or something? Cause I know in my university the guidance center will never break confidentiality unless there is a risk of harm to oneself and/or to others. And will they be forced to pay for psych evaluation shit outside the campus?

And yeah, those comments, ugh, cliche pro life shit. Honestly I would prefer someone to listen to me rather than provide solutions that I've already tried and tested. The comment about the brain chemicals might have some truth to it but it's overgeneralizing.

Wait Jesus Christ I just saw one that was asking the OP to do things that scare them and one of them was "ask out your crush". Fuck that. FUCK THAT. FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKKKK THAT! If OP gets rejected then it'll make them even MORE suicidal! VERY BAD IDEA. VERY VERY BAD. Some people need to get their privilege checked, UGH

 

[TAW122]

@autumnal Yes, I think your last sentence probably summarizes it up. I did feel like I was reacting to the events as reading that post did shock me especially the comments.

@RedDEE Exactly, and this is why I really cherish this site for what it is because we are allowed to freely discuss these topics without censorship, judgment, and/or other bullshit that we encounter elsewhere (especially IRL and other places).

@jgm63 Yes, I am aware of that and I don't fault them for operating under the current laws of their system. I only wished that instead of parroting off same stuff, that they would have something better to say. However, if that's the only thing they can do then you are correct, they aren't completely at fault there as they have to keep their jobs and avoid having the university's reputation/image smeared, as well as other consequences.

@s1mplem3 Good analogy.

@BabyYoda I don't know, this is in Canada so I assume the healthcare system is different from the US. Also, yes a lot of comments are a bunch of platitudes and other generalizations of that person's situation. Finally, yeah I agree with what you said especially about the ill-advised comment by the other redditors on there, it would most likely just push the guy well past the edge if the guy gets rejected.

 

[zherhk]

That's what I mean when I say that it's literally a witch hunting.
I guess they don't really care about saving someone else life, but they are just defending their ideals.