Colleges have their policies as to what is permitted on their campus and what is not. Aside from the problems caused by ambiguous and ill-defined policies, the use of words that lack meaning or have peculiar definitions on campus that fail to align with their meanings in the real world, college students are just as entitled to the protection of police as anyone else. Of course, that protection hasn’t always proven to be as comforting as young people expect.
At Santa Clara University, students are instructed by the college website that they should “always call 911 immediately.” No, not because they’re being robbed, raped or beaten. This command is to enforce a policy that the school deems of sufficient importance that people with guns are needed.
“If the bias incident is in progress or just occurred: ALWAYS CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY,” the university website states.
The university defines a “bias incident” as “a speech, act, or harassing action that targets, threatens, or attacks an individual or group because of their actual or perceived race, color, national origin, ethnicity, religious affiliation, sex, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation.”
Having carefully reviewed the police call codes, there doesn’t appear to be one for micro-aggressions. Clearly, the police should swiftly correct this glaring omission (and no, “alarm sounding” refers to something else). If not, the 911 operator might not properly notify the responding officers that they’re being called to campus because someone uttered a word that offended someone else, like American, perhaps, and will approach under the assumption that their lives are in danger.
A bias incident brochure listed on the university’s website warns students that “SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY PROHIBITS BEHAVIOR MOTIVATED BY BIAS.”
The brochure states that after a bias incident report is filed, “[t]he University will conduct an in-depth investigation.”
The brochure lists several “Rights of the Complainant” (i.e. the student filing the report) including the right to “request and receive information about the investigation at any time” and the right “receive campus escorts at any time for as long as the complainant(s) feel(s) the service is needed.”
While there is a sound basis to question the policy choices made by Santa Clara University, on levels from constitutional to modestly rational, they are as free to make whatever infantile policies they want, provided it otherwise comports with their legal responsibilities. If that’s the world you want to live in, hey, it’s your life.
But silly college feelz policies aside, this raises a specter of unintended consequences that is far more sinister than the school is likely to realize. Introducing real police into their world of academic happy brings with it the potential for real harm, even death. Is using a word that hurts someone’s feelings worthy of execution?
What makes this profound is that, in a nation with so many acts proscribed by criminal sanctions, each of which brings with it the myriad enforcement techniques employed by law enforcement to obtain compliance and, per the First Rule of Policing, protection of the officer from threat, real or imagined, the opportunities for death, the killing of a human being by the volitional act of a law enforcement officer, are innumerable.
College students are notoriously bad at being understanding and compliant with the commands of police. First, there’s the good guy curve, where they just don’t understand that they’re the bad guys in the cops’ eyes, as they’re just the most special people in their own.
Second, they believe with all their heart that they are entitled to argue their point because their opinions are incredibly valuable and deserving of respect. So consider this scenario:
Cop: Hands up, you person who uttered a hurtful word.
Student: I don’t think I said anything hurtful?
Cop: Last chance, or I’ll…
Student: You’re being dismissive of my…
What happens next:
- Cop engages in reasoned debate as to free speech rights, relative potential hurtfulness of word at issue or discussion of Kantian views.
- Cop tases student.
- Cop shoots student.
- Cop laughs at ridiculousness of the call, turns and walks away.
Frankly, who knows. There’s a chance that the cop will behave like the grown-up he’s supposed to be, realizing that this was never a police issue and the 911 call was infantile nonsense. But there’s also a chance that he will use one of the few tools he carries on his belt. This is particularly true if the student’s reaction is somewhat contemptuous of the police officer’s authority. They really hate it when that happens.
Why take this risk with the lives of your students?
As part of the university’s “Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program,” Santa Clara offers several training courses including “Exploring Impacts of Implicit Bias & Microaggressions in Higher Education” and “Speaking Up to Bias.”
Perhaps Santa Clara should consider including a “life skills” course as well, to assure their students remain alive should one of them follow their direction, immediately call 911 upon hearing something that strikes them as hurtful, and insert armed and less than empathetic officers into the mix.
With the introduction of real police into the academic fantasy world of implicit bias and micro-aggression, Santa Clara University could learn a very important lesson about the interface between silly campus feel-good policies and bullets. Death is a whole lot worse than the trauma of hearing someone utter a word that might hurt a feeling.
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I wouldn’t bet that the problem here is that the university hasn’t thought through the potential consequences of calling 911. It could be that the university knows full well what sort of punishment might be doled out for badspeak but they prefer to keep their hands clean, to be able to tell themselves they are merely using the powers of their intellects and their minds to persuade rather than resorting to (ugh) the brute force the lower orders of humanity seem to indulge their animal instincts in. (Besides which, it’s not like any of them have guns and Birkenstock doesn’t even make a jackboot so what would they wear?)
Careful. Don’t go to the jackboot thing here. I won’t tolerate that crap.
With over a decade of experience as an assistant public defender, my advice is don’t call 911. It’s too risky.
That’s weird. Mine too, and I don’t even have decades of experience as an assistant public defender.
I’m not paying for that advise..
How long before someone dies as a result of 911 being overwhelmed and police tied up handling ‘butt-hurt’ calls?
Whether or not that happens, it’s certainly a possibility. Or just a moment when two calls come in to 911, one about a micro-aggression and another about saving the life of a baby, and one call gets placed on hold.
Why is it that we never hear any discussion of “milli-aggressions”? These are, quite literally, an order of magnitude more severe than a micro-aggression but almost never receive any public scrutiny or discussion.
Why must you give them ideas? If this happens, I’m blaming you.
Stop milli-aggressing Hal for his suggestion.
You are drastically underplaying the importance of milli-aggressions. They’re not “an” order of magnitude more severe. They’re fully one thousand times more severe!
That’s why we can’t allow any microaggressors to speak at commencement addresses you know. If you microaggress in front of a thousand people, you’ve committed the horrifying act of a milli-aggression.
Sounds like a 1J Juvenile complaint. Needs some 4N victim advice resulting in K1 No further police action required.
Consider this (more likely, I think) scenario: Cop responds to microaggression and immediately arrests special snowflake complainant for misusing 911. What happens next:
1. Snowflake provokes cop, is harmed, sues school.
2. Snowflake doesn’t provoke cop, is arrested, charged, and punished, sues school.
3. Officer miraculously makes entitled windbag student understand that he or she has done something wrong, student accepts consequences, if there are any, and grows up.
(note that possibility 3 is listed as being logically possible in theory, but cannot actually happen)
This would be nowhere near as problematic if ‘threatens’ and ‘attacks’ had actual meaning to the people writing and reading this silly policy.
Things might not go so well for the student that places the 911 call either. After racing to the scene of the crime only to discover that the call was over a lousy t-shirt, the cop might be feeling less charitable to the victim. Maybe even a little hostile.
I have this image of the responding officer using hate speech directed at the twinkie who made the 911 call, since most officers will likely consider the whole thing a waste of time.
I kinda wanna go here now, just to see what happens to response times after the 20th 9-1-1 call.
I’m pretty sure someone would just end up walking around behind me, constantly on the line with 9-1-1…
Is that whir in the distance Ignatius
as he spins? Is his grave that capacious?
His order once sought
to encourage deep thought.
Have Jesuit minds grown ceraceous?
You don’t have to call 911. In fact you or you and your friends, after you have had time to discuss all the bias you expecrienced on any particular day, or didnt even know you experiencd can now secretly report the evil doers via EthicsPoint online.
Which is perhaps even more troubling than the “call 911” instructions and I would argue the true goal of the university with this program.
But even the children might get a little concerned if the university came right out and said, “It is your duty to secretly report any individuals who are not in compliance with the Bias Code to Information Retrevial”.
Knock, knock…Sorry to bother you so early Professor Wankerstein but your recidivism lecture yesterday morning recived nine EthicsPoint complaints last night. We just wanted to remind you that if you breach the threshold you will not be considered for a tenured position. Have a nice day.
Knock, knock…Sorry to bother you so early Jane but that t-shirt with the vulgar language you wore to class yesterday recived two EthicsPoint complaints. We are going to have to conficiate that and remind you that you will be expelled if there are anymore EthicsPoint complaints lodged against you this semester.
911 what’s your emergency?
My mom and dad just called and told me that they stopped paying for the data usage on my cell plan and I haven’t had time to file my bias complaints on EthicsPoint today?
We will send some officers over right away. Do your parents still reside at 1130 Tulip Lane?
The EthicsPoint part of the equation is certainly filled with problems, but this is a post about the “call 911 immediately” part because that’s what I chose to focus on. Thank you for playing.
Always a pleasure to play along on the obvious swings, the jumbo slide ain’t too bad either, when the hyperventilating headlines occasionally distract you from the practical implications, desired results, and purpose of policy.
You know what I say, smoke more before hanging the mirrors of policy.
Getting it, is not even entry.
You ain’t that tough with the pen esteemed one.
You look pretty good with the proper back light setting though. And better yet you still got some love in you that I don’t t think can be distinguished for anything other then very capible concern.
I don’t think you can give it up. That being said, it’s not that far, nor difficult to respect the line.
Granted even close is a bad idea, which is why I suggest you read some Hegal.
You are going to be grandpa soon. Get a head start.
https://youtu.be/fwD7_iQ5S6Q