Dartmouth Students Involved In Anti-Rape Protests Face Disciplinary Charges for Violating School Rules
ByDartmouth College students, who filed a federal complaint against the school for failing to prosecute and report sexual assaults, are being disciplined for violating the student code of conduct for organizing a public protest and disrupting a recruitment meeting.
"We were protesting sexual assault on this campus, and the administration's failure to respond to homophobia and racism on campus," Nastassja Schmiedt, a Dartmouth sophomore, said. "We were informally informing the college of civil rights violations."
The college students who disrupted the April 19 meeting received letters from the director of the Undergraduate Judicial Affairs Office informing them of the disciplinary measures for violating the student code of conduct. The students are being charged for failing to comply with the rules after they entered a campus building, which was already at its maximum capacity.
During the recruiting event meeting , about 15 members of a student group, 'Real Talk Dartmouth' walked into the room and started shouting 'Dartmouth has a problem!', and revealed incidents of homophobia, racism and sexual assault on campus. One of the protestors displayed a sign that read, 'I was called a fag in my freshman dorm.' At the same time, another set of students chanted 'We love Dartmouth!'
The student protestors later received rape and death threats from other students in an online unofficial campus forum, titled 'Bored at Baker,' which was filled with aggressive and volatile comments including 'Why do we even admit minorities if they're just going to whine?' and 'Wish I had a shotgun. Would have blown those [expletive] hippies away.'
One of the student protesters, Karenina Rojas, feels that the college officials are being unnecessarily harsh on the group as they have previously not disciplined students involved in similar on-campus protests.
"I was a member of Occupy Dartmouth, and we occupied the student center for months... We definitely failed to comply with directions, and we were never disciplined like this," Rojas said.
Another group, 'United Students against Sweatshops,' also escaped punishment after being accused of disturbing several high-level events on campus such as board of trustee meetings