EPFL: Justice proves a former schizophrenic student right

ThoseFederal Administrative Court –A schizophrenic student could reintegrate the EPFL

Ten years ago, he attacked students and damaged a car in an ax parking lot. Under treatment, he won the case against the EPFL.

Posted today at 4:01 p.m.

The Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL) will have to give a second chance to a student suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. The Federal Administrative Court (TAF) estimated, in a recent judgment, that one could not exclude such a student for life because of his violent past. It is a legal defeat for the EPFL which feared for the safety of the campus.

The case starts around 2015. The one we will call Michel is registered for some time at the EPFL in order to spend a Bachelor. What? We don’t know. The judgment cavited the name of the study section as well as various details of Michel’s journey.

Verbal and physical aggression

What we know, on the other hand, is that Michel is not a student like any other. “He verbally and physically assaulted several students on the EPFL site, behaved inappropriately in a school library and damaged a car in the campus parking lot by means of an ax,” reads the judgment of the TAF.

In September 2015, the EPFL disciplinary committee decides. She judges that the facts are serious and that a risk of recurrence exists. She pronounces for the expulsion of Michel from the Haute École. The latter accepts the decision.

Why did Michel were violent? We have a little idea following the criminal procedure that started at the time for depredations committed on the car. Psychiatric expertise is indeed ordered by justice. She concludes that the student has paranoid schizophrenia.

Low relapse risk

Time passes, Michel was treated and in 2023, he wishes to again indulcile to win a Bachelor at the EPFL. He argues that his state of health is now stabilized. As proof, the reports of his psychiatrist, who attest that the risk of relapse of his illness in the event of resumption of studies is very low, even non -existent.

How does the EPFL react? In the negative. She informed Michel that the exclusion decreed in 2015 was final. Michel then called on the EPFL’s internal appeal commission. The latter recognizes that Michel’s medical reports of the stabilization of his state of health are “detailed and convincing”.

Unfit for studies stress?

So what is stuck? The EPFL appeal committee first notes that there was no revision of Michel’s disability annuity, which suggests that his state of health has not improved. She also noted that Michel has not already acquired professional experience. This therefore means that he has not demonstrated his ability to “resist the psychological stress linked to studies”.

For the appeal commission, it is clear that the risk represented by Michel for the safety of the EPFL has not significantly decreased. It is therefore advisable to maintain its expulsion.

Michel uses this time in front of the Federal Administrative Court. He argues that the EPFL has evaluated the security risks it represents for the Haute École. She did not take enough account of the relationships of her psychiatrist, has established an unrelevant link with the height of her AI rent and, more generally, adopted a discriminatory decision towards people suffering from schizophrenia.

No compromise

Michel also notes that the EPFL, rather than slamming the door on the nose, could have offered him a compromise solution. Which? Accept for example that he resumes his studies on the condition of regularly producing a certificate attesting to his medical follow -up. Michel even says he is ready to undergo a new psychiatric expertise to demonstrate that he is no longer a danger.

The EPFL persists and signs in its refusal. The compromise solution? She reports that there is no legal basis allowing her to require a certificate of medical follow -up under penalty of exclusion. This is not a development due to disability. Therefore, it cannot be accused of any discrimination.

New expertise

What do the judges of the TAF of all this? They immerse themselves in the psychiatric relationships of Michel’s doctor for a long time. It is read, of course, that “the judicial history and paranoid schizophrenia presented by the patient are risk factors for reiterating illicit acts”, but this is immediately offset by the fact that Michel responds very well to treatment, that he has developed in the past eight years “an excellent knowledge of his illness, and in particular the factors that could weaken it, the first symptoms that could arise Attitudes to have in such a case ”.

Basically, he manages well. The zero risk is not guaranteed, but according to the psychiatrist, if there was a problem, it would manifest itself little by little and it would have time to put Michel on sick leave far from the EPFL, to adjust its treatment, or even, in the event of aggravation, to intern it in the psychiatric hospital, even against its will. The latest medical report ends with the fact that, despite the stress that this trial aged, Michel “manages this test” perfectly.

These reports carry the membership of judges, who believe that Michel should not be excluded for life from the EPFL. This does not mean that his re -registration is guaranteed. TAF judges ask the EPFL to resume Michel’s registration procedure, to submit it to independent medical expertise, or even other expertise if necessary. The EPFL is also ordered to pay the 5000 francs of the lawyer, whose Michel benefited as legal assistance.

Did you find an error? Please report it to us.

19 Comments