In his email, Mr. Scott wrote that following existing policies for “trauma during exam period,” students who felt their performance could suffer because of the decisions in the Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island cases could request a delay.Have we expanded the word "trauma" to include the non-indictment of someone you don't know for the murder of someone you don't know? How loosely should we definite this? If I cut my finger, would that be enough "trauma"?
The existing policy certainly included deaths in the family, possibly some language for a case-by-case death of a friend. How many persons at Columbia Law School knew Eric Garner personally? How many personally knew Mike Brown, when Ferguson (outside St. Louis) is 900 miles from New York City?
What about all of the other persons killed in violence every year? Will the school give delays in exams for students who know a victim not named on cable news? How far does this extend?
We should not minimize the trauma persons experience by conflating it with being upset about persons we didn't know, simply because that person has become a symbol in death.
posted by Lachlan @ 8:49 PM
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