Law Schools

Law School Bullies Are Real, And Students Are Suffering Because Of Them

What is your school doing to stop this problematic behavior?

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Welcome to the latest installment of The Struggle, a series where we examine the mental-health and social issues that students and recent graduates encounter during the oftentimes grueling law school experience. We are posting these stories because sometimes what law students and recent graduates need is to know that they’re not alone in their pain. Sometimes what law students and recent graduates need is to know that they’ve got a friend who is willing to share not just in their triumphs, but also in their struggles. These are real messages from real readers.

If these issues resonate with you, please reach out to us. Your stories need to be heard. You can email us, text us at (646) 820-8477, or tweet us @atlblog. We will share your stories anonymously. You may be able to help a law student or recent law school graduate who needs to know that someone else has been there before and survived.

There is another student at my law school who has been systemically bullying me, my friends, and others. I have seen her make nasty comments to faculty and staff, yell in the faces of other students, and falsely accuse or attack numerous individuals. Though she is only one person, she uses the systems available to her not as the shield they were designed to be, but as a sword with which to skewer anyone she decides to dislike. She is in a position of power at the school and everyone fears her. The problem with this fear that has permeated throughout the law school is that no one will come forward and tell the administration when she makes threats, harasses them, or otherwise intimidates them. This university is unusual in that it has no behavioral code of conduct, leaving the administration virtually powerless to discipline this student for her consistent intimidating, harassing behavior.

This individual is exhibiting some sure signs that something is very much the matter. She goes for weeks where she won’t even look other students in the eye in the hall and weeks where she will corner people and tell them intimate details of her personal life with no prompting. The down weeks are the dangerous weeks — the weeks that she lashes out and insults students in the halls or corners them in the bathroom to ask why they looked at her “wrong” in class. When I came forward to ask that the school help me cease her behavior and get her some help, the only advice they could offer me was that I was “not alone.” This was the opposite of comforting. They were allowing, even condoning, bullying and intimidation that they knew about, that may be the result of a serious underlying mental health problem, but that they were powerless to stop.

I love law school. I am a proud, hard-working 2L in the top of the class with a summer associateship lined up. To the outside viewer, I have my life together. But inside, this student’s persistent threatening behavior is taking its toll. I have suffered from anxiety and mild depression since high school. I am medicated and very much had it under control even through the first year of law school. But now I can’t sleep on the nights before I have a class with this student. I no longer feel safe walking the halls alone. I don’t go to the library anymore. I don’t even go to the bathroom alone. To have a university pretty much tell you that there is nothing they can do unless another student hurts you is truly terrifying. I spend three hours a week in class with a student who hates me in a way unimaginable and with unprovoked staring at the side of my head.

If you had told me I would be so depressed that I couldn’t get out of bed at least once every two weeks because my own law school refuses to protect me from harm, I would never have believed you. If you had told me that I would have to consider the possibility of harm to another before dating or that I would feel responsible for my roommate’s safety to the point that I wonder if I should have lived alone, I wouldn’t have believed you. The number of panic attacks I have had this year is far greater than I have ever experienced. The number of nights that I come home from school just to lie in bed and consider whether I should drop out and forfeit everything I have worked for is shocking. And I have even briefly dwelled on the one thing I never thought would enter my mind: suicide. Fear not, I have a great support network and a wonderful psychiatrist, but the fact that this thought has entered my mind at all is yet another sign that my mental health is deteriorating because of this law school and their inability to handle the mental health needs of their students.

Bullying in law school is real. I have experienced it. I have experienced those who use their power to intimidate. I have experienced those who are simply mean about grades or appearance. The struggle is real and it is unlike anything I have ever experienced. The fact that an institution feels that they cannot address behavior until it becomes life-threatening is absurd and fosters an environment so conducive to bullying that it is nothing short of a miracle that nothing terrible has happened. This individual clearly needs mental health assistance and the fact that the institution has no power to give it to her speaks to yet a larger problem in law school. Bullying and mental health are intertwined in a messy tangle. Bullies may have and may cause mental health issues or may exacerbate those that already exist and law schools do very little to address either the problem of mental health or the problem of bullying.

Most law schools have counseling and psychological services resources that students and graduates can turn to if they are in crisis or would like counseling, even after hours. If these services are not available at your school, and if you or someone you know is depressed and in need help, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-8255) or a lawyer assistance program in your state (don’t be fooled by the name; these programs also provide services to law students). Remember that you are loved, so please reach out if you need assistance, before it’s too late.

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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