13 misogynistic male students receive minimum punishment
Something is rotten in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Something is rotten in all of academia. Just nine months after 17-year-old Halifax-native Rehtaeh Parsons’ suicide following a traumatic rape, Dalhousie University finds itself at the centre of a nationally-involved debate about on-campus rape-culture. On Dec 16, 2014, CBC News received several disturbing screenshots exposing the depravity and rape-fantasy-fueled musings of 13 male students attending Dalhousie University. The 13 male students in the fourth-year cohort of Dalhousie’s dentistry program, have found themselves under investigation following the discovery of a Facebook page entitled “Class of DDS 2015 Gentlemen.”
In Dalhousie’s fourth-year dentistry cohort, there are currently 47 students. 26 of the students are male, which means that the 13 students who made up the violent misogyny-bent Facebook group make up half of the male year. Dalhousie has been reluctant to baldly state the depth of the sexism in the fourth-year class. In emails sent to students by the university’s president, there was no mention of the shocking number of students in the program who had participated in the group, compared to the number of students in the program. Students, as well as onlookers, across the country were led to believe that the group was a minority fringe group. Furthermore, a spokesperson for the university, Brian Leadbetter, has stated that Dalhousie does not wish to publish the names of the students for fear of jeopardizing their future careers. In other words, at the end of this semester, these 13 students could ostensibly graduate and continue on to careers in dentistry without ever having to disclose what they’ve been accused of. In disturbing contrast, in order to report an assault claim, a victim must publicly disclose his or her name and information.
Screenshots of the group depict the students listing some of their female fellow students by name as well as how much they would enjoy “hate-f***ing” them into “unconsciousness.” Other posts joke about coercing women through the use of chloroform or nitrous oxide in order to rape them until “stress-relieved;” both chemicals are easily accessed by the students at the on-campus dental clinic where they receive clinic hours. As a result of the discovery, the 13 male students have been barred from public classes, as well as clinical hours, and they are strongly encouraged – though not required – to attend counseling services offered by the university.
Richard Florizone, President of Dalhousie University, reports that the consequences for the male students were decided upon by an interactive system of restorative justice, during which all parties come together to discuss and agree upon possible punishments. Apparently, the two or three female students listed in the group by name had to attend several meetings during which they had to look the monsters in the eye while they heard what the men had written about them. Despite Florizone’s assurance that the restorative justice process was equally favoured by the Board of Governors, the perpetrators, and the victims, several female dentistry students have published an anonymous open letter expressing their unhappiness with the ruling. The women explained that they had felt pressured into accepting the ruling and would have preferred a much stronger punishment. The female students have opened up about the sexism they have experienced in the program.
Unfortunately, Dalhousie’s extremely lax response to the sinister events perpetrated by 13 ignoramuses is endemic of a much larger problem plaguing academic institutions. For an undergraduate student, being accused of academic-misconduct is arguably the most immediately terrifying possibility faced during our studies. Suspensions and expulsions are common punishments received for, contextually, extremely minor offenses. It seems that we live in an academic culture that cares more if you forgot to cite something a few times than if you threatened egregious violence against another human being. Surely, by protecting these men and by plying them with a mere slap on the wrist, we are actively stating that promoting violence against others, specifically women, is a minor infraction. Even though the men of the group claimed it was a “joke,” joking about rape and assault only serves to internalize it as something “not that bad” in the listeners. On a darker note, if these students can joke so lightly about rape, who is to say that the desire has not yet been consummated in some way? The cavalier way in which Dalhousie dealt with this act of violence does not bode well for past, present, or future victims.