Marquette Sports Law Review Volume 10 Article 6 Issue 1 Fall The Legal Duty of a College Athletics Department to Athletes with Eating Disorders: A Risk Management Perspective Barbara Bickford Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/sportslaw Part of the Entertainment and Sports Law Commons Repository Citation Barbara Bickford, The Legal Duty of a College Athletics Department to Athletes with Eating Disorders: A Risk Management Perspective, 10 Marq. Sports L. J. 87 (1999) Available at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/sportslaw/vol10/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE LEGAL DUTY OF A COLLEGE ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT TO ATHLETES WITH EATING DISORDERS: A RISK MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE BARBARA BIcKFoRD* I. INTRODUCTION In virtually every college athletics department across the United States, there is an athlete with an eating disorder engaged in intercollegi- ate competition. Progressively larger proportions of eating disordered women have been identified in the general population and in college student populations, and they clearly have an analogue in the athletic sphere.' Knowledge of eating disorders in athletics populations has ex- isted for almost twenty years, yet many colleges and universities seem to be ignoring the problem.2 Eating disorders are a serious health threat that require prompt medical attention. Colleges may owe some duty of care to their athletes, in fact a college that ignores eating disorders may be negligent. To prevent legal liability, colleges and universities must educate their employees to be aware of and recognize symptoms of eating disorders, create a plan for interven- tion and treatment or referral, and engage in preventative education.