Last Thursday, a jury found Harvard Counseling and Mental Health Services employee Melanie G. Northrop not liable in a civil case pertaining to the suicide of Luke Z. Tang ’18. I am not a member of Tang’s family, nor did I ever know him. I am neither a legal scholar nor a psychiatrist. I cannot pretend to ascertain whether the decision was just.

Instead, I urge us to seize this moment to reflect on how Harvard’s mental health system has failed — and continues to fail — its students. In turn, we must demand reform to reduce the chances of such a tragedy ever happening again. Read more…