A complaint has been filed against the University and Amazon, Inc. on behalf of nursing student Arya Singh, who died in February 2013 by suicide in her dorm room.
The lawsuit blames Amazon for allowing her to purchase the soluble cyanide salts online that she used to kill herself. It alleges that there have been 51 purchases of these types of salts online that have resulted in 11 deaths, even though Amazon had some policies in place to prevent such sales.
Penn is named as a defendant due to alleged “unsympathetic, hostile and at times vindictive” behavior that administrators showed towards Singh. In 2011, Singh reported being sexually assaulted in her dorm room as a freshman by another student. Her case was not pursued by the district attorney, but the University took steps to isolate Singh from her alleged assaulter.
The complaint targets the University for negligence in pursuing her case due to the changeover in the sexual assault investigating procedures over the last year.
It states that Singh became depressed and began drinking heavily as a result of the trauma of her assault, which resulted in Singh being placed on academic probation in January 2013 and facing other student conduct offenses. She was asked to leave University housing on Feb. 8 of that year, and she was found unconscious in her dorm room that day and was not able to be revived.
Mental health has been an ongoing conversation among Penn students and administrators, who witnessed a string of six student suicides in 15 months.
This article was last updated at 4:57 p.m. Check back for updates.
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