Elizabeth Shin

Who was Elizabeth Shin?

Elizabeth Shin was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student who died from burns inflicted by a fire in her dormitory room. Her death led to a lawsuit against MIT and controversy as to whether MIT paid adequate attention to its students' mental and emotional health, and whether MIT's suicide rate was abnormally high. Although her death was first thought to be a suicide, both MIT and her parents have stated that it may have been an accident as a stipulation of the amicable settlement between MIT and the Shins.

On April 10, 2000, a student named Andrew Thomas heard a smoke alarm in Elizabeth's dorm room. Although the door was locked, Andrew could smell smoke and could hear crying coming from within the room. When MIT police broke down the door, they saw Elizabeth "engulfed in flames, flailing on the floor in the middle of her room." Sixty-five percent of her body was covered in third-degree burns and she died several days later.

On January 28, 2002, Shin's family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the school and several administrators and employees. They accused the school of "breaching its 'promise' to provide an appropriate medical diagnosis and treatment of Shin, as well as reasonable security, emergency services and level of care." In their lawsuit, Shin's family alleged that despite numerous warning signs, such as sending emails to faculty members saying that she was depressed and wanted to kill herself, she received minimal attention. MIT counseling services sometimes relegated duty to her parents, discharged her with minimal treatment, or failed to take action in response to her emails. Shin's parents say that their daughter's death was the 10th of 12 suicides committed by MIT students since 1990 and was foreseeable by the school's Administrators and its Mental Health Services employees.