(WOMENSENEWS)–A young woman suffering from anorexia nervosa was expelled from her private Catholic college in Easton, Mass., and a federal judge refused to compel the school to readmit her, according to The Washington Post. Keri Krissik of Milford, Conn., sued Stonehill College under the Americans With Disabilities Act. Krissik was so thin that she suffered a heart attack and the school, just south of Boston, said it did not have adequate medical facilities to cope with her illness. The federal judge did not rule whether Krissik should have been covered by the act, saying only that Krissik failed to prove she would be irreparably harmed by her expulsion from the school.
About one percent of U.S. teenage girls between the ages of 10 and 20 develop anorexia nervosa, a psychological condition leading to self-starvation, according to the American Anorexia Bulimia Association. Women are overwhelmingly afflicted, estimates ranging from 90 to 95 percent. Up to 10 percent of those afflicted by anorexia may die as a result of their illness.
