Urban Legend

On last night’s CSI:NY (Some Buried Bones), a rerun from February of this year, reference was made to a college policy of awarding straight A’s to anyone who has suffered emotional distress as, for example, experiencing the death of a roommate. This idea was also featured on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and even on an episode of The Simpsons as well as in the films Dead Man on Campus and Dead Man’s Curve. No school apparently has such a policy; the story is really an urban legend. But, I wonder how many people have watched these TV shows and movies and think this policy does exist. And I wonder why TV and film writers write about this ridiculous "policy". Snopes.com (from which I took some of the above information) gives a thorough but brief explanation of this urban legend (http://www.snopes.com/college/admin/suicide.asp) along with a good suggestion for additional information.