What would you do if you or your son or daughter was ordered to apologize to their College professor and class for denying “white privilege”?

That is exactly what is happening with a student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  The Campus Reform news sites is reporting on that student who has now been barred from class, given an academic referral for disputing “the reality of white male privilege” and forced to apologize for his beliefs and actions in the classroom.

I am not kidding about this.

The student was quoted in the article stating that:

The floor was opened, and not a single woman spoke…Thirty seconds or so passed and still no woman had spoken. So, I decided it was permissible for me to enter conversation, especially because I felt the conversation itself was completely inappropriate in its structure.

The day after the student spoke up in his classroom he was called in to “talk” with the professor of religious studies, professor Alison Downie, who then presented him with an academic referral for:

  • “objecting to the professor’s class discussion structure,”
  • refusing to “stop talking out of turn,”
  • making “angry outbursts in response to being required to listen to a trans speaker discuss the reality of white male privilege and sexism,”
  • and referring disrespectfully to “the validity of trans identity and experience.”

At that meeting Ms. Downie ordered him to:

“write an apology to the professor which specifically addresses each of the disrespectful behaviors described above, demonstrating ability to take responsibility for inappropriate behavior which has significantly damaged the learning environment of this course.”

He was then ordered to read his apology before the class last week on March 8 and then:

listen in silence as the professor and/or any student who wishes to speak shares how he or she felt during Lake’s disrespectful and disruptive outbursts on 2-28.

For your information the Indiana University of Pennsylvania is a tax funded public school in Indiana County, Pennsylvania.

Are we not told that our college campuses are supposed to be an environment that allows students to explore and discuss any ideas?  I believe that an open discussion about all aspects of an issue effecting many of us and the college students would actually be beneficial to the students and it sounds like definitely the “professor”.

According to the student, the religious studies class was forced to watch a Ted-Talk video on February 28 featuring Paula Stone, a transgender woman.  In the Ted-Talk video this transgendered woman gave examples of “mansplaining,” “male privilege,” and systematic sexism. After the video was played in the classroom the student said that the instructor “opened the floor to WOMEN ONLY. Barring men from speaking until the women in the class have had their chance to speak.”

Why would this female “professor” only allow women only to speak in the class?  It sounds to me that this class should have viewed a Ted-Talk video on sexism.

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