Brian Carroll was the president of Vatterott College in Kansas City, Missouri. It was freezing the cold when he was locking up the school on January 6, 2017. Suddenly he noticed there was someone else in the building with him.
It was a student who was talking to himself, and apparently homeless.
"I know the student… so I said, 'Where are you staying?' and he said, ‘I’m living out in the woods in a sleeping bag.' I said, 'It’s minus 2 degrees tonight,' and he said, 'That’s where I stay,'" Brian told Inside Edition.
He said the student has schizophrenia, and that he had not been taking medication because he could no longer afford his prescription. Feeling empathy for the young man, and afraid the cold temperature might kill him, Carroll allowed the student to sleep in the library of the college.
“He said he needed $6 for the deductible, so I gave him $10 and said ‘I’ll let you sleep in the library in front of the furnace… you can take a shower if you’d like. But at 9 a.m. you need to be on the bus to get your medication,'" Bruab recalled. "This guy does what he said he will do. If he tells you he’s going to do something, he does it. So he said OK, and on Monday he was back in class, not talking to himself."
The simple gesture allowed the student to quickly get back on his feet, but then school officials confronted Brian. When the college president admitted to allowing the student to sleep in the school, he was fired.
Brian argued that in his five years, this was his first "offense," which hardly seemed cause for termination. However, the school said he was simply not allowed to let students stay on campus buildings. He has received an enormous amount of support, which he believes will help him find a new job.
“They taught us to obey lawful orders, not all orders… you need to call on your judgement and experience, draw on it all, and make the right decision. You’ve just got to go on your gut about this," he said.
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