Iowa mother wants parents to know more about suicide among college students after she won a partial victory in court against Iowa State

The mother of three never planned on getting a tattoo.

But that was before her son died by suicide, before she and her husband had taken up a wrongful death case against their son’s school, and before a jury found Iowa State University partially at fault for his death.

Kathy Schussler, 56, and her husband, Jeffrey Schussler, 63, of Marion in northeast Iowa, filed a wrongful-death case against the state partly in an effort to see 21-year-old Dane Schussler's medical records after his death in November 2015, she said.

They had decided that what they learned about their son's story — he was seen at an overstretched counseling office by an unlicensed and unsupervised graduate student — needed to be told and addressed.

Dane's death

Dane Schussler was the oldest of three children, a lover of games — especially Pokémon games — and an industrial engineering student halfway through his junior year at Iowa State when he died.

“He truly lived life,” Kathy Schussler said. “We all looked to Dane. He just lit up our world.”

She struggled to list enough adjectives to properly describe him: kind, independent, fun, calm, unafraid.

“He was like a best friend to all of us,” she said.

On Nov. 9, 2015, Dane Schussler lay on the railroad tracks near his Ames apartment and was hit by a train.

The lawsuit

Dane Schussler had gone to Iowa State's Student Counseling Services on Sept. 29, 2015, "complaining of difficulty concentrating and focusing after a traumatic incident involving his friends," court records show.

He was assessed by an unlicensed graduate assistant who was pursuing her Ph.D. in psychology at the time, according to court documents.

He was having trouble focusing, sleeping and eating. The graduate assistant saw him for five more sessions, determining he had an adjustment disorder with evidence of depression and anxiety, court documents show.

During an Oct. 22, 2015, session, Dane Schussler, who had no history of mental illness, told the counselor he was having suicidal thoughts for the first time that "led him to research information on suicide and possible methods,” according to court documents.

The lawsuit filed by Dane Schussler’s parents more than three years after his death claimed the counseling center didn't take the adequate steps to respond to the sudden change in his mental health, "continued to provide him with an inadequately supervised counselor, and failed to refer him to a more appropriate source."

On Aug. 14, a jury in Linn County found Dane Schussler 50% responsible for his death and the state of Iowa 50% responsible.

"I felt like we moved the bar forward,” Kathy Schussler said. The split decision means the state owes the family $315,000.

Michael Norton, Iowa State's counsel, said the verdict was inconsistent with an Iowa Supreme Court precedent that college students — unlike, for instance, hospital patients — are not in the physical custody of the government.

“Imposing a legal duty on universities to prevent a student’s suicide threatens the progress being made with these issues," Norton wrote. He said ISU will continue to do everything it can to help students.

Angie Hunt, a university spokeswoman, said Iowa State has not yet decided whether it will appeal the ruling.

The current director of Iowa State's counseling center declined to comment.

Staffing shortages

At the time of Dane Schussler’s death, the ISU counseling center was underfunded and "seriously short-staffed, unable to meet the mental health needs of its students, a problem which they claimed was longstanding,” the Schusslers alleged in the lawsuit.

Four months before Dane Schussler died, the center's director, Terry Mason, was fired after warning that Iowa State's student counseling center needed more counselors and that it was unable to adequately serve the campus at a time of soaring need.

Mason, 64, of Ames had held the position for 22 years. He filed a whistleblower case against the university that was settled in January 2017, at which time he said the university had done "an admirable job" of increasing its funding for student counseling in the preceding months.

His initial complaint warned that it was only a matter of time before a "mental-health-related disaster would occur on campus."

Mason, who testified at the trial and now serves as president of Synergy Counseling and Consultation, told the Register that part of his argument in his whistleblower case was that more staff would lessen the probability that something bad would happen.

But Mason said he doesn’t believe the center’s lack of resources contributed to Dane Schussler’s suicide, because Schussler was never turned down for services.

From 1997 to 2015, enrollment at ISU rose 42%, but resources for the program didn’t keep pace, Mason said.

During a 2011 site visit from the International Association of Counseling Services, Mason said, he was told that ISU might have the best counseling center in the country, but that it was also five counselors below the standard.

By the time he left in 2015, it was nine counselors short.

“I didn’t feel like it was being adequately addressed," Mason said during a phone interview. "I felt like it was actually being ignored.”

Iowa State says that the number of full-time counselors at the center has increased from 15 in 2015, the year Schussler died, to 21 in 2019, and that the budget has increased by $316,418 in the past four years.

“I don’t want Iowa State students or the parents of Iowa State students to feel like, if my son or daughter has a need for counseling or health services, that they’re not going to get it," said Mason, adding that the center's resources improved greatly in the years after his departure. “That’s not the case.”

Instead, he said, he hopes people realize the importance of having mental health services in place and to ensure they don’t slip out of balance.

University policies

“We are really proud of our son” for choosing to go to the counseling center when he felt he needed help, Kathy Schussler said. “From our perspective, he did everything right. He actually told somebody he was suicidal.”

She said she would’ve taken him seriously if she knew he had suicidal thoughts — but she never knew to ask.

That’s one of her biggest concerns, looking back: The university never informed her of her son’s suicidal thoughts.

According to the student counseling service's professional code of ethics, their staff can't release a client's information without that person's written permission. An exception exists in the rare case in which students seem highly likely of harming themselves or others, the code reads.

“Universities don’t tell us these policies, and we don’t know to ask,” Schussler said, adding that she thought she had access to her son's medical information, as a parent.

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She suggested that a name be listed as an emergency contact in case a student is found to be mentally ill, adding that she doesn't believe universities alone can handle what she believes to be a suicide epidemic spurred on in part by college debt, increased pressure to succeed, social media and fear in the media.

According to Penn State's Center for Collegiate Mental Health, the number of students using counseling centers increased by an average of 30% to 40% between fall 2009 and spring 2015, while enrollment increased by only about 5%, and the number of students who have suicidal thoughts has increased each year since 2010.

More than 10% of male and 12% of female college students seriously considered suicide sometime in the past year, according to a 2018 report from the American College Health Association.

More than 40% of students said they had difficulty functioning because of depression, according to the study, and more than 60% of college students said they experienced overwhelming anxiety the previous year.

"The system in place is not working," Kathy Schussler said. "We need to re-evaluate.”

Mason confirmed that the confidentiality agreement will be broken in the case of imminent harm. But he said counselors don't want to have to take that step because it could affect whether students in need feel safe coming to the center.

“The trust that the students have in their counselor (is) paramount in order for them to share what’s going on and for us to help them,” Mason said, adding he has concerns about the possibility of releasing all records to parents.

If a child doesn't want their parents to know, he added, then the counseling center has to respect that because ISU's students are adults.

Helping other parents

Schussler said she has advice for parents who have lost a child to suicide: Be kind to yourself, don’t blame yourself, and find people who can comfort you.

“We felt that shame when our son died,” she said. “It's debilitating. You just want to crawl into a hole.”

Even though the trial brought back a lot of pain, she said she’s grateful she has the resources to go to therapy, a husband of 27 years to lean on, two other children and 21 years' worth of memories with her late son.

She doesn’t think she fits in well at most suicide therapy groups. Often, those participants talk about spending months, if not years, trying to help their loved one get treatment.

But her son's death was sudden, without warning.

“When I sent Dane into the counseling center, I didn’t send him in for full-blown depression; I sent him in for what I thought was normal college stress,” she said, encouraging parents to research counseling centers for their children ahead of time since most young people don’t know what to look for.

She also wants to start a support group for parents who’ve lost college students to suicide.

Schussler wants to name it LOS;S (Loved Ones of Suicide; Speak).

“We're the loved ones who are left behind,” she said. “And instead of giving up and ending the sentence, we choose to speak and continue writing and speaking about our loved ones.”

She plans to get the name of such a group tattooed on her wrist, where her watch goes.

It’s representative of her son’s love for numbers, and also a symbol of his early death.

“The bottom line is our children are loved, and it’s their loved ones who take the hit, and the universities move on,” she said.

Eliminating the stigma

During the trial, the Schusslers' attorney, Martin Diaz, said his team was intentional about eliminating the phrase “committed suicide” from their vocabulary, instead saying “died by suicide.”

The word “commit” implies there was free will involved, he said. But suicide is not a choice, but rather an effort to escape pain and agony, he added.

“We want people to understand that suicide is not a selfish act,” Diaz said. “You’re never going to repair something if you’ve got the wrong idea about what it is that we’re dealing with.”

Diaz said that Schussler's death was one that could have been prevented, adding that universities have to either fully fund their services or refer students to places with sufficient resources.

"You’re either in or you’re not in," he said. "What we’re seeing right now is a lot of universities half in.”

Kathy Schussler said she and her husband talked to their kids about drugs, sex, alcohol, depression and anxiety, but they never knew to specifically ask about suicide: “Just being able to talk about those feelings, that very simple act, could save their life.”

John Westefeld, a suicidologist and a psychologist in private practice in Iowa City, wrote in an op-ed published in September 2015 that in order to help prevent suicide, individuals must stay informed, get involved in suicide prevention workshops and seek help if they or anyone they know appears to be suicidal.

Anyone who is having suicidal thoughts is encouraged to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255.

"People in pain need our permission and encouragement to talk about their pain," Westefeld wrote. "Frequently, people will initially resist the idea of going for help. But with continued encouragement, many people will often eventually pursue counseling."

Anna Spoerre covers crime and courts for the Des Moines Register. She can be contacted at aspoerre@dmreg.com, 515-284-8387 or on Twitter at @annaspoerre.

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How to get help for depression

There are several state and national resources for those contemplating suicide, as well as resources for family or friends who may be concerned about a loved one:

• Your Iowa Life: Call 855-581-8111 or text 855-895-8398 for free, 24/7, confidential support. The lifeline is answered by Iowans. Other resources are available online at YourLifeIowa.org. There is also a live chat function on the website.
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: Call 800-273-TALK (8255). The lifeline is answered by someone at a crisis center closest to your location. Other resources are available online at SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.
• Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 for free, 24/7 crisis support.
• Central Iowa Crisis Line: Call 844-258-8858 for 24/7 help in Iowa's 11 central Iowa counties. Information is also available online at CICSMHDS.org.