Reprisals Are Occurring
Yesterday I confirmed with the person that she was summarily suspended from her internship at MSSD because of her arrest. She was not given the opportunity to provide information before the the suspension was imposed. She also said that a student leader was suspended as a Residential Advisor at Clerc Hall, even though he was not one of the people arrested on October 13th. The reason given to him for his suspension was that he failed to convince the students not to be arrested. Other reports of reprisals are emerging, including one, not yet confirmed, about a staff member who was suspended from work on Monday for her arrest. I have also received information, also not yet confirmed, that Gallaudet’s judicial system has begun to review the status of people involved in the demonstrations. Gallaudet has continued its videotape surveillance of people, even at off-campus events.
Yesterday several of us met with a large law firm to discuss a range of civil and criminal issues. The attorneys involved asked several times if jordan really was the one who ordered the arrests, finding that decision and approach hard to understand. A lawyer who was a prosecutor with the US Attorney’s office in DC for 10 years explained that its particularly difficult in DC to have the arrest citation expunged the record. He said that in this case, Gallaudet University is the complainant in the matter. Thus one approach would be for Gallaudet to say that it will not press charges, providing an avenue for DC courts to expunge the citations. It may be a matter of the President of Gally, now or in the future, making this decision not to press charges to remedy the situation.
People are continuously arriving at Gally, to provide moral support for the movement. Thats great, but what happens on Monday? What pogrom will be put in place to quash the “dissenters?” What gulag will they be exiled to? Will we be able to protect the futures of those who we so heartily applaud for putting themselves on the line and standing up for us all? Reprisals (I’m using a different dictionary than jordan here) are already happening and I have yet to see any strong movement to remedy that.
Why is the BoT continuing to fiddle around while Rome burns? I agree with the headline of todays Wash Post’s op ed, GET some backbone BoT. Go ahead and meet, and let us know what your new best thinking is.
-Jeff
reprinted with permission by the listserv moderator
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Well, if you read the article in regard to bot having backbone…the newspapers are telling bot to stick with their originial decision and not to reverse their decision for the sakes of mob aka the protesters! So don’t be giving out kudos without reading carefully~ my friend/foe
The late Washington Post owner Kahtleen Graham was on the Gallaudet board. Probably why the editorial writers are not allowed to listen the different view.
I already read it carefully, but I feel the readers should be kept abreast of the news.
Just because I publish the article doesn’t mean I agree with it. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve submitted other entries that I personally don’t agree, but I feel it is more important for people to read and decide for themselves.
Yes, Washington Post editors is heavily biased due to its ties to Gallaudet University. It is very unfortunate as they are doing a grave disservice to their readers. We need to educate these editors and the only way is to reach out to them. Please write your letter to editor and submit them.
The IKJ administration may go into the big reprisal business after the homecoming weekend.
The current and future students(deaf, h/h, oral, and hearing students may be afraid of the campus situation in the hostile period. They may be ready to search for the other colleges, avoiding the Gallaudet’s North Korean style admin(MBI, students=terrorists, oppression, student rights, etc.)
Reprisals are to be expected. If you break the law you will be arrested, and it will be reviewed by judicial affairs. It is policy. Protesters don’t want to be held accountable for their protesting… so, they should be careful of what tactics they use to protest. People should be held accountable for their actions. Protesters are not stupid people, they should have thought about what being arrested would mean before they decided to be arrested. There was plenty of warning and time before the arrests occurred. So, whatever happens with their current job/schooling is their own fault for being unlawful… and for the rest of their lives when they apply for jobs and are asked “have you ever been arrested?” they will have to say “YES.” Maybe these people will start to think, and start to respect authority.
Just as a thought here, the operative word here is “suspension”. When a police officer is accused of something serious, he is suspended pending investigation. This is perhaps a case of the same thing. By all fairness, DPS officers directly accused should have a similar suspension. I’m not familiar with the entire rulebook of policies and guidelines and such, but I’m sure there is something that is being done “by the book”, though perhaps a bit more strongly.
Hopefully “suspended” is just that, and not “terminated”.
Oh, Anonymous, to the last portion of your post. “Arrested” yes (unless it is expunged after a certain point). Convicted is a different story. Likewise I’ve often seen “convicted of a felony”. Sometimes it’s “misdemeanor other than traffic violation”. However, after these questions, there’s usually space that says “if yes, explain” (or similar. The arrest may negatively influence the immediate judgement, but the explanation may work toward the applicant’s approval. That is MAY, not WILL.
Let’s not forget the threatening emails JKF sent to the
board. The very same board that’s been standing up to her
in the face of all this opposition If I am a deaf board member-how could I ever show my face in the deaf community again?? Many many prominent well known deaf professionals
have publically OPPOSED the appointment of Fernandes. To
my knowledge only ONE deaf professional has come out in defense of IKJ other than IKJ. This is obviously her style-
management by intimidation and now the board has proof in the form of an email from JKF herself! If this doesnt spur
the BoT to get rid of her we will have to ask ourselves just what is it the board and IKJ trying to cover up??????
The feds will have to investigate as JKF herself has said.
What are IKJ and JKF covering up. Is it the alleged missing
$4 million dollars???????????????????? What is it that would make an alleged nice guy like IKJ resort to such
desperate measures?????
Actually the lawyers are now investigating the reprisals and arrests. They are taking these complaints very seriously. If there are reprisals, including firings and suspensions, the university needs to be prepared for major lawsuits which will surely occur. Also there would be a tremendous backlash from the majority of Gallaudet Community as well as the Deaf community where Gallaudet gets its primary consumers. This will damage the university even more in the long run. The real culprits are the administrators and BoT who consistently refuse to work with the stakeholders of the university.
The university would be advised to think seriously about their punitive actions if they wish to avoid negative consequences. Negative publicity regarding their heavy-handed approach only hurts the University administrator once the public realizes the extent of the oppression and discrimination.
That Mad Psychologist planted the seed of this huge current mess long time ago. Him being so defensive is a sign that something is amiss. Right now, BOT has the power to fire JK and IKJ and there will be more likely opening a big garbage can of worms. All we can do is keep running up the score until official end of this whole thing. Stay patient, stay cool, stay calm, stay collected, keep peaceful protesting and we will prevail at the end for a grand G-Day one day soon. I am fully committed to go all the way. FYI I am Gallaudet staff member working as Network Manager in ITS. I have zero fear of that dreaded admin that is hell bent on maintaining the status quo. They have no feet left and just shooting blanks rest of the way.