Added to the list of words devoid of meaning at institutions of higher learning is the word “tolerance.” A student at the University of Houston, Rohini Sethi, found that out the hard way.

She was diverse and inclusive, allegedly liberal values. However, judging by the reaction of the social justice warriors on the U of H campus, Sethi’s innocent post is being reacted to as if she burned a cross in front of the student center.

Rohini Sethi, a young woman of color whose conformity to the values of the mob allowed her to hold the position of  student body vice president, expressed an opinion on Facebook following the murder of five Dallas cops.

Shortly after the July 7 shooting in Dallas that killed five officers, Rohini Sethi went on Facebook and opined “Forget #BlackLivesMatter; more like AllLivesMatter.” The statement was later deleted, but only after numerous UH students denounced it as incredibly offensive or even hateful.

More like intolerable, as her fellow student explained.

“Just for her to say, ‘forget Black Lives Matter,’ is a punch in the stomach,” student Nala Hughes told a local press outlet at the time.

But it wasn’t just a matter of hyperbolic metaphors, as Sethi’s offense, the expression of an opinion that failed to adhere to other students’ orthodoxy, wiped away her history of muttering acceptable rhetoric and condemned her as an enemy to the cause.

Certainly she had to be removed from her position as vice president, as no hater could be allowed to hold office in student government.  But the process of removal was arduous, and the mob demanded blood immediately.

Instead of going through that arduous process, the student senate approved a measure giving SGA president Shane Smith exceptional one-time powers to punish Sethi as he saw fit. In response, Smith released a letter Friday outlining a set of five punishments for Sethi. The punishments include:

• A 50-day suspension from SGA starting August 1. This suspension will be unpaid (she currently receives a stipend of about $700 a month).
• A requirement to attend a three-day diversity workshop in mid-August.
• A requirement to attend three “UH cultural events” each month from September through March, excluding December.
• An order to write a “letter of reflection” about how her harmful actions have impacted SGA and the UH student body
• An order to put on a public presentation Sept. 28 detailing “the knowledge she has gained about cultural issues facing our society.”

If Sethi refuses or fails any of the requirements, she will be kicked out of SGA entirely.

University of Houston is a public university, and therefore obliged to adhere to constututional standards. Free speech included.  But then, free speech is also on the list to which tolerance has now been added.

[SGA President Shane Smith] also said that despite UH being a public university, free speech considerations did not factor into the punishment.

“The first amendment [sic] prevents a person from being jailed by the governmetn [sic] for what they say. But [it] does not prevent people from receiving other consequences for what they say.”

Before you jump down Smith’s throat, whether for his inability to write a cogent sentence, employ proper capitalization, spell a word correctly or demonstrate a minimal grasp of the fundamental law of his nation, bear in mind that those aspects of education have to be wedged in between other, more critical, pieces, like diversity and inclusion training. How is one to know what pronouns to use?  And there’s always spellcheck.

Substantively, however, this presents a problem.  Despite Smith’s slight miscalculation as to the reach of the First Amendment, it does indeed prevent a person from being punished by the imposition of official sanctions for expressing an idea.  But then, there are other tropes available, like Hate Speech isn’t Free Speech, and you can’t cry fire in the crowded theater, which can be found engraved on many a college lintel.

But beyond the impropriety, not to mention flagrant ignorance, reflected in the children’s tears and outrage, is that they see the solution in “re-education.” Hold a view that angers the mob and they’re off to the camps to be retrained properly.  A few electro-shocks, and hours of hearing the voices repeating slogans of approved messages, ought to do the trick.

Of the five punishments, four involve rightthink. Two of the four are, unfortunately, pedestrian, as they merely repeat what is already required of essentially every college student. For those unaware, students are already required to undergo, to some greater or lesser extent, indoctrination in progressive values. Sethi will be required to endure it again, but it’s nothing she hasn’t likely been through already.

The other two, however, are eerily reminiscent of the history of regimes elsewhere. She will be required to write a “letter of reflection,” a confession of her sins of expressing a thought that differs from the mob, characterized as “harmful actions.”

And then Sethi will be put on stage to publicly denounce her wrongthink, the error of her ways.

For her part, Sethi’s expressed her regret for burning a cross on Facebook:

“I’m sorry for the words that I’ve used,” Sethi said. “I’m sorry for the lack of understanding that I had. I didn’t have a clear understanding of what the Black Lives Matter movement is or that the All Lives Matter movement was created in direct opposition to Black Lives Matter. I did not mean to undermine anyone’s lives or the freedom of speech or the movement.”

Her mea culpa fell on deaf ears:

“I’ve been studying your body language,” Azebe-Osime said. “You say that you’re sorry, but I don’t really feel like you’re sorry. To say you’re not educated about Black Lives Matter is baffling to me. People who are black don’t have the luxury to not be educated about Black Lives Matter.”

People who are black, at least at the University of Houston, also don’t have the “luxury” of saying anything that doesn’t satisfy the ideological demands of their race.

The president of the UH SGA, when he finally was given the authority to circumvent all rules that otherwise applied, so that he could impose punishment upon Sethi, finally had the opportunity to express his deepest thoughts.

“The immature drama that goes on in this organization — I think it’s ridiculous, and I think it’s shameful,” Smith said. “Whether it’s our private meetings or our private Facebook pages, the way that we occasionally behave is absolutely shameful.”

Unintentionally, Smith raises a question that demands an answer. The “drama” was most assuredly “immature.”  So where are the grown-ups at University of Houston to tell the children that it is not a crime against the mob to express a differing thought?

H/T Stephanie West Allen