Katie Meyer was no ordinary student, even by Stanford’s lofty standards. By all accounts, Meyer was not only an exceptional athlete but also an exceptional scholar and human being.
On February 28, Katie, only 21, died by suicide, having received notice earlier that evening that Stanford was beginning a formal disciplinary process against her for an incident in which she allegedly poured coffee on a Stanford football player who had, again allegedly, been harassing one of Katie’s soccer teammates.
Just before Thanksgiving, the Meyer family sued Stanford, alleging the California school should be held legally responsible for her death.
An ESPN report noted that the evening of February 28 began unremarkably for Meyer. She had facetimed her parents and discussed, in what her parents reported as a good mood, plans for coming family and friend trips. Meyer was working hard in school and awaiting her acceptance to Stanford Law School.
Later that evening, Stanford sent Meyer, via email, a six-page letter. According to the lawsuit, Stanford “negligently and recklessly” sent their star student and national championship-winning athlete the formal disciplinary notice that “contained threatening language regarding sanctions and potential ‘removal’ from the university.”
New Jersey attorney Michael Epstein, who is experienced in wrongful death cases, points out that Stanford’s defense will need to show that nothing out of the ordinary was done here:
“Part of the family’s claim is that Stanford was negligent in delivering their disciplinary threat after-hours and in the manner they did. If the family can prove that this was exceptional and not part of Stanford’s usual disciplinary process, that may go a long way in establishing the university’s civil liability for Katie’s death.”
Stanford, of course, disputes that it had anything to do with Meyer’s death and will surely argue in court (should this go to court) that it should not be held liable. But at least on its face, sending any student a late-night email such as the one Stanford is alleged to have sent evinces a massive breakdown in the process as well as a remarkably unfeeling administration.
Again, even by Stanford’s best-in-class standards, Meyer was no ordinary student.
As ESPN recounted:
“Meyer made two key saves in a penalty shootout to help Stanford win the national championship in 2019. She was a part of the prestigious 2022 Mayfield Fellows Program — which is geared toward developing students to lead technology ventures — and was awaiting acceptance into Stanford Law School.”
A court will ultimately look at how and why Stanford does what it does.
From a personal and legal perspective, one might wonder how insensitive and misguided it is to send a student a notice of that magnitude over email, especially without fair warning, and at night. Was this an auto-generated send (huge process flaw)? Or did some administrator decide to hit send, knowing the student would receive the notice informing them that they might be kicked out of school, thereby ending plans for a legal education there and tarnishing the student’s reputation as one of Stanford’s best and brightest?
This is why we have the legal process and courts — they can and will sort this out in time. But, for now, the lessons learned from this tragedy need to be that every school and organization should ensure that their procedures and policies pass a common sense test. Someone at Stanford will have to answer why an official university communication of this magnitude was received by Katie Meyer in the way it was.
