File this one under "No good deed goes unpunished"...

Brian Carroll, campus president at Vatterott College in Kansas City, committed the unthinkable: He dared to help a student who is homeless and schizophrenic find a warm place to sleep.

Carroll, who was president of the trade school for five years, says one of his students had no place to go.

On Friday, January 6th, he allowed that student to sleep overnight in the school's library.

His reward for that kind deed? On Monday, January 9th, he was fired.

Carroll said he knew the student was homeless, off medications he needed, lacked transportation, and would be sleeping outside in near-zero temperatures. The student had been sleeping in a wooded area near the school.

"I was thinking this is a life-threatening situation for the student," Carroll told The Kansas City Star.

Carroll told Fox4KC his options were limited:

"I just didn't want to take the chance. We had ice and snow.

I had a tough choice to make. He can't stay on campus. I can't put him in my car. I can't take him to my house."

Paul Ferrise, Vatterott's regional vice president, said that Carroll had made a "bad decision" in allowing the student to stay overnight on school property. He said that Carroll could have helped the student get to a shelter:

"Mr. Carroll had a range of options available to him to help the student. He made a bad decision."

But Carroll disputes that claim. He said school policy prohibited him from using his own car to provide a ride for the student. And Vatterott's recruiting officer on campus said the student could be trusted to do what he said, so Carroll gave the student $10 with an agreement:

"He agreed that he would leave at 9 a.m. the next morning, and that he would get a bus and go down to get his medication. And he did, and he was back in class," Carroll said.

Carroll is quite surprised that he lost his job, and feels a written reprimand would have been more appropriate, if punishment was necessary.

He said he and others around campus had been trying to help the student find housing. Carroll has worked in education for 35 years, and said he knew he took a risk, but choosing to protect a student was the right decision:

"I made a choice. I was choosing between life — I'm not from here. I'm from Southern California. I'm not sure if I could live in the woods at minus two degrees.

I don't know of a direct written policy that says you can't keep someone overnight. There's a policy that says I must protect the assets. I did," Carroll said.

Call me crazy, but I just don't understand why an educational institution would fire a seemingly kind-hearted president who simply wanted to help a student SURVIVE an exceptionally cold night.

It seems to me that Carroll should not only have been able to keep his job, but should have been commended for extending the bit of help that he could offer to someone in desperate need.

In this video, Carroll shares his story.


In the US, the homeless are ignored, abused and treated like criminals. Shelters are often fined and closed down, blankets and food are seized by police, and tent cities are demolished as their destitute residents watch. When compassionate citizens dare to offer assistance, they are often met with aggression from the State. In many cities across the country, it is illegal to feed the homeless, In others, you'll be slapped with fines for doing so, or will be required to spend hundreds of dollars on permits if you want to feed the hungry.

To quote Joshua Krause:

As they say, you can always judge a society by how they treat their weakest members. So I shudder to think of how future generations will judge our society. We've become a nation that discards our poor like they are trash, and anyone who doesn't "fit in" is segregated from the herd.

Aren't we all supposed to be in this together?

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" - Emma Lazarus, from the Statue of Liberty plaque

So much for that.

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/war-on-the-poor-continues-college-president-fired-for-helping-homeless-student_012017

Humm maybe the School Library was not the best place for him to offer due to School Property... But would he have been able to live with himself knowing due to the weather the boy may have froze to death when he could have helped??

Sounds to me that no matter what he was limited and damn if he did if he helped the boy at all...

It is sad that we get punished for helping a human being that is down and out..

I hope the boy graduates with honors and becomes someone important in the end just cause this teacher helped him the way he did and pays it forwards to those in need...

It seems the campus rules are in place to limit
liability..a very common occurrence.

Rules are made for the masses and often seem
onerous when a particular scenario presents itself.

Rather than dealing with the homeless student with
his own resources, he chose to use the school's.
Which placed him in jeopardy.

He obviously did so out of compassion.
A freezing night outside, he gave the student what
was not his to give, often an easy choice.

It is a serious breach, one he was aware of at the
time it seems.

I cannot blame the school.
But I am most pleased the kid stayed warm :-)

i understand the schools position and rules, as did the dean... but what i can't understand is why the school board isn't being any kind of flexible with the rule in this case... maybe there's a reason why the board wanted him out that had nothing to do with the student...

Indeed.
And often they will take a stand merely to make a serious point
like a jury might make an example of someone with a long sentence.

But your premise is true.
No good deed goes unpunished.
I dunno who said that, but they nailed it :-)

Maybe?