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Hopkins student appeals suspension for offensive Web posting
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BALTIMORE (Map, News) - The Johns Hopkins University student suspended for a year after posting a racially tinged Halloween party invitation on the Web site Facebook.com is appealing the ruling today with the school’s dean of student life, Susan Boswell.
The university’s student review board, made up of three students and two faculty members, found 18-year-old junior Justin Park guilty of failing to respect the rights of others, harassment and intimidation.
Park then sought help from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, the pro-free speech organization said Thursday in a written statement.
According a news release by FIRE, Park currently faces suspension from the university until January 2008, during which time he cannot set foot on campus, must complete 300 hours of community service, read 12 books and write a reflection paper on each, and attend mandatory attendance at a workshop on diversity and race relations. Park filed an appeal of the university’s decision Monday.
FIRE wrote a letter on Park’s behalf to Johns Hopkins University president William Brody.
“Jeopardizing a student’s entire academic career because some students were offended by a joke is not just unfair — it’s cruel,” FIRE Director of Legal and Public Advocacy Samantha Harris said. “Hopkins should teach its students that the way we deal with speech we dislike in a free society is with more speech, not with severe and life-altering punishment.”
The uproar began shortly after the “Halloween in the ’Hood” party held Oct. 28 was advertised on the Web site Facebook.com. The invitation encouraged racially stereotyping costumes, included references to the late attorney Johnnie Cochran and O.J. Simpson and prefaced descriptions of Baltimore as “a ghetto,” “the hood” and “the HIV pit” with a four-letter epithet. Director of Greek Affairs Robert Turning asked Park to remove the invitation after student complaints. Park removed the advertisement on Oct. 27, but later reposted a similar advertisement. Sigma Chi, the fraternity which hosted the party, has been put on probation by the university.
JHU spokesman Dennis O’Shea said the university could not comment on individual student disciplinary action.
FIRE said Park did not want to address the suspension publicly while his appeal is pending.
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frogseayouye said:
look water glass german are deliver
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Examiner Reader said:
Thier are two other companies in N.Y. harbor that offer school and a job.
322 agree | 324 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
These schools do not educate folks with degrees adequate for many BRAC jobs
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Examiner Reader said:
Please note that Judge Clifton Gordy is a Associte Judge in the Circuit Court for BALTIMORE CITY not Baltimore County.
598 agree | 371 disagree
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Q & A said:
Answer: Mudd, Mikulsi, and O'Malley. Question: Name three rteasons not to attend the U of Md.
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Julie Evans, University of Maryland, Baltimore said:
In your facts about UMB, you left out the majority of the students (4,837) on campus which are in graduate and professional degree programs: Physicians 621 Pharmacists 480 Dentists 456 Social Workers 840 Lawyers 830 Nurses 788 Physical therapists 194 Other graduate (PhDs) 628
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Examiner Reader said:
i think it is great hoping for nothing but success
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Ori Shabazz said:
If not solved in primary or secondary, Black males (Black people) must settle the identity question during post secondary work. Black male and female students in Baltimore must be INSPIRED to learn through innovative means. Black male students have to be taught the very basics of education and SOCIAL skills.
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Examiner Reader said:
I believe the problem with low attendence of black males in college is a cultural issue not a fairness issue.
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Examiner Reader said:
You mean all it takes to get black males to go to college is have black professors? Wow, I wish it was that easy. There is a nation-wide trend for more women than men in post-high school education; right now the gap is about 55% women and 45% men and getting wider. How does the issue of the race require different tactics than simply being a male?
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Examiner Reader said:
As a retired teacher, I am happy to see black young men with a continued positive influence post- high school. I do hope that the program developes with enormous success and extend itself to young black adolences prior to exiting High School. We need to give them a little motivation during the middle school experience. If that is not an option, well, I guess those wilth the inner drive will continue graduating for some institude beyond High School will do so! But, statistics are evidence, the we are losing them before High School! Grades 6th - 8th have been the points of deciding whether to lead or to follow. Our black youth need you, as a group positive black role models to implement some incentives to motivate their self-esteem and ethnocentric pride! May God bless you in this endeavor that may enlighten others to join your cause that can make difference in our city and others!
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