<p>Don’t know the details about the case’s history, whether the school attempted to handle it on it own or if they readily let it go to court.</p>
<p>Sometimes a problem arises when the students are expelled or otherwise punished, and the court finds them innocent. It would be interesting to know if Milton Academy waited for the court findings before expelling these students, given their constitutional right would allow them to not discuss the case with the school until the court case is resolved and any decent attorney would tell his client so involved to keep mum.</p>
<p>Five male students (2 juveniles) were actually expelled back in February when the story came out. The only reason I know this is that I was mildly interested because my son graduated from a NE prep school, and I work in the Boston area, not far from Milton. For some reason, the story got a lot of attention from the local press.</p>
<p>P.S. And to get back on the theme of this thread, I would never judge Milton Academy based on this single incident. Again, a lot of the hype was due to the media focus because it was a “sensational” story.</p>
<p>The Middlebury case was racial, the Milton case was sexual.</p>
<p>The point I see is that the both school acted before any judicial decision occured. It seems that the Middlebury case was never brought to a real courtl–the school decided within its own walls. I don’t look at the case as racial either. If the student involved were not black, I would think, hope that the school would have treated the situation the same way. I will give it that much in speculation. However, it seems to me the end result is serious enough that a real court is going to have to get involved now.I wonder if Middlebury would have come to the same conclusion had the young man accused been the son of a deep pocket family that the school would know that an expensive and high powered law suit would follow.</p>
<p>There is more to this story than is reported in the Village Voice article. The college had reason to suspend him, and believe me, Midd would not do this lightly. While it is a violation of college policy to release details of the private hearing and the appeal (a policy that is actually intended to protect the students), some details have emerged from the students’ own emails to the student body. One fact that isn’t mentioned in this article is that the college recently implemented a card entry system, so they can track the movements of students into and out of dorms. His card was used to enter the dorms in the middle of the night on the nights that these break ins were reported. Also, the college knows who lived in that room before the accuser moved in, and perhaps it was a friend of the accused–yet he refuses to acknowledge that he mistakenly entered the room and fell asleep thinking it was his friend’s room. He insists it wasn’t him at all, which may make his other claims suspect.</p>
<p>I am sure there is much more involved than the article gave. However, it seems to me, that the action has now reached a level where the young man should pursue the school’s action in the courts. If the level of justice that Middlebury uses is not up to snuff in this venue, we shall see if it does go to court. The problem is that these kinds of cases are expensive. If a deep pocket kid were involved, I am sure it would not be an issue, but for this young man it is going to be a problem.</p>
<p>He did pursue it in the courts, and was denied his motion to be allowed to graduate with his class by Hon. Christina C. Reiss. Of course he could always appeal. The tapes of the college judicial hearings are being withheld under the Federal Educational Records Privacy Act, which says that they need to get permission from all the people in the tapes before releasing them.</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s a school in the country that’s going to expell a senior for falling asleep in the wrong room, even if he was drunk and broke in, regardless of race. Something else happened, something pretty bad, and it is probably in deference to the rights of the expellee that more facts are not forthcoming. This makes no sense otherwise. Pressure on the college may change those priorities, however, because this is terrible PR for them. I think they will have to tell the whole story.</p>
<p>Not being permitted to graduate with your class is one thing, and is often done for all kinds of situations in private schools and is not likely a thing that a court will intervene upon. Withholding the diploma altogether is a whole different story.</p>
<p>There likely IS more to the story because the way it is reported now does not seem aggregious enough to expel a student. The punishment of expulsion is a heavy price and I can’t imagine it was all for falling asleep in the wrong room. It is too hard to judge these things without all the facts. And we are only reading the facts presented which appear unjust (the way the accuser pointed to other students initially and so forth). NO MATTER what the real story is, I would not view this college any differently. It could happen anywhere and while we are discussing it here, it does not alter my view of that school. Same with many other incidents over the years of something happening on a campus and then generalizing about a school.</p>
<p>"Hawkins pointed to three black students from the Middlebury face book who he said resembled the intruder. Fortunately for each of them, none were on campus that weekend. "</p>
<p>Ok, so the victim tried to pin this on three other African Americans who were later proven to have been “off campus” during the incident. The convicted guy was the fourth student accused, after the other three could prove their innocence. Hmmm…if he could have proven his innocence, I wonder how long this would have gone on. </p>
<p>“Well-meaning ignorance. Think Mumia supporters. In fact, it belies that one student’s comment about apathetic, rich white kids (who presumably don’t care a fig about their black fellow-students).”</p>
<p>Clearly, it’s not that simple. You can’t just keep pointing your finger at various people until someone can’t find an alibi. </p>
<p>If you don’t like the author, google the story and you’ll find accounts written by others. After reading several, I find none where Middlebury reveals their “secret evidence”.</p>
<p>And my comment about Mumia supporters was addressed to Soozie’s question about the support–possibly knee-jerk liberal reflexive support–for this student on campus. This was a very hard and unfortunate thing for this college to have to go through, and if they felt they had to expel this student, something pretty bad happened. Otherwise this is just admissions suicide. It’s a good school, with good people, and they wouldn’t inflict this on themselves just to conform to racist preppy stereotypes. Quite the opposite. Of course the Oliver Stone theory is always a remote possibility.</p>
<p>Well, when I was readingthe article I was thinking “ok, what’s the issue,maybe he did it…just because he’s black doesn’t mean he can cry racism when being accused of something”. But, then I got to the bit about 3 others being named before him. Heck, if you name enough people, you’ll eventually find someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Regardless of his being black, or gay (which I suspect he is), being the fourth named seems like an odd path to conviction.</p>
<p>So I have a question
supposing that despite others being named before him- he actually did it.
Is entering a room by mistake ( after a big night of partying no doubt) really enough for someone to lose their diploma for three weeks before graduation?
Particulary someone who hasn’t been in constant trouble at school, but participates on panels and such?</p>
<p>Well no, but clearly something else happened, of a serious nature, once the student entered other people’s rooms. That’s what the college isn’t being clear about, to their own detriment. As far as the misidentification: going to the facebook would be the logical step, whether the suspect was blond or black. And misidentifications from such limited sources can and will happen. But that may be being used as a smoke screen by the expellee. There is no way that Midd or any other similar college would do this to an African-American student on the eve of graduation were there not something really serious to the charge. It’s just too damaging to the institution. They would probably have loved to have been able to give this guy a pass, and would have had there not been extenuating circumstances. Just my opinion.</p>
<p>In the blog the AA student writes that part of what he was asked to do in order to be re-instated involved seeing a therapist - there is more to the story than is told in the VV article.</p>
<p>“And misidentifications from such limited sources can and will happen.”</p>
<p>What happens in the real world when victims repeatedly identify the wrong person? </p>
<p>Acquittal.</p>
<p>If he’s innocent, he’s learning the lesson that most black men learn at some time or another - watch your back. </p>
<p>Sorry, but that’s how I see it. He’s lucky this didn’t land him in jail. He should get his diploma and thank Middlebury for teaching him this lesson in such a non-life altering way. He’s still free, can go to grad school ,get a job, whatever. Heck, this might inspire him in law school. This isn’t a jaw dropping thing. SOmeone was just telling me that a similar thing happened at Duke…a white student identifed a sexual perpetrator as “black male, early 20s, wearing jeans and a hoodie”. Boy, were the police busy stopping/ questioning all of Duke’s black male students.</p>
<p>If he did it, shame on him for playing the race card.</p>
<p>Come on Momsdream. I don’t think today’s “real” world is as racist as you make it out to be. I didn’t know whether the post of yours below was serious or not. It didn’t get a single response, nor should it. </p>
<p>Quote: "I want to know why the KKK is burning crosses is Durham. I know Duke Isn’t responsible, but they need to take a stance on it, since it’s happening in their backyard!</p>
<p>Poor old South…can’t seem to escape the ignorance!"</p>