Death tied to privacy law

Although the school was aware Nadia Kajouji had been suffering from depression, privacy laws prevented counsellors from contacting the girl’s parents earlier, Carleton University officials told a news conference yesterday.
Nadia’s family has been critical of the university for not telling them the teen had expressed suicidal thoughts and had been on antidepressants. The 18-year-old disappeared six weeks ago and only after she’d been gone three days did Mohamad Kajouji get a call from the school about his daughter’s mental state: She had been seeing a counsellor and campus doctor and had been prescribed Cipralex, an antidepressant in the Prozac family.
A body, which police believe is the Brampton teen, was found in the Rideau River on Sunday.
The tragedy has once again raised questions about a university’s obligation to inform parents about their child’s medical condition.
Kajouji says the doctors she was seeing knew she was feeling suicidal, but didn’t contact him until it was too late. Carleton would not comment on what information they had prior to Nadia’s disappearance or what information was revealed to Kajouji.