 On Point Vincent Carroll, editor of the editorial pages, writes his On Point column most weekdays. He is also an author and freelance writer. Reach Vincent Carroll at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com. |
Carroll: Student's 'ordeal' over
Max Karson’s lawyer is pleased, and no wonder. His client is being permitted to return to the University of Colorado campus despite having given his best classroom impression earlier this year of an unstable nut.
“We are extremely pleased that the university recognized that Max never intended to make anyone afraid or uncomfortable and, for that reason, it has decided to hold his summary suspension in abeyance,” said attorney Daniel Williams. “It is critical that when professors ask students questions during class discussions, the students are permitted to express their views and are not hauled off to jail just because those views are unpopular.”
Yes, counselor, students shouldn’t be hauled off to jail just because their views are unpopular, or even universally despised. Karson’s arrest in April on a misdemeanor charge of interfering with staff and students was surprising and should be dropped. But that doesn’t mean CU erred in booting Karson from the campus until it could assess whether he posed a threat.
Karson wasn’t punished merely because the views he expressed in class were unpopular. They were alarming, at least to a few students.
Shortly after the mass murders at Virginia Tech, according to witnesses, Karson declared that “if anyone in here says they’ve never been so angry that you wanted to kill 32 people, you’re lying.” He stormed on in this disturbing vein, at one point saying, according to the Boulder Daily Camera, that “the basement room \[where the class was held\] with fluorescent lights and the unfinished wall make him angry enough to kill people.”
If you’d just been saturated with stories about how the Virginia Tech murderer came across as a weird, menacing presence in class, wouldn’t you find Karson’s comments unnerving?
University officials have no business trying to cull students with unpopular or provocative views from the classroom. But weeding out intimidating or scary weirdos is a different proposition.
After all, it’s possible for a student to express understanding of the rage that might drive a young loner like the Virginia Tech killer to crack without also implying that the speaker himself is teetering on the edge.
After investigating the Karson affair, the university decided to give him another chance. Fine. He probably deserves it. But let’s not try to twist his ordeal into a case of classroom censorship.
No. 1 with a bullet
China obviously believes that the execution of its former chief food and drug regulator this week for taking bribes will shore up its damaged reputation abroad. It will show, in the words of The New York Times, that China is “serious about improving the safety of Chinese products.”
Somebody please tell the Chinese leadership that the swift execution of Zheng Xiaoyu is almost as shocking to most Westerners as the fact that cough syrup and toothpaste imported from China contained diethylene glycol, a prime component of antifreeze.
Zheng may have been as corrupt as they come, but putting a bullet in his head only confirms China’s reputation as a nation that tolerates extremes, whether in the contents of its exports or its criminal justice.
Vincent Carroll is editor of the editorial pages. Reach him at carrollv@RockyMountainNews.com.
Vince,
The death penalty is always wrong, everywhere, all the time.
Your comment makes me wonder if you are upset only because it was a white collar criminal executed.
Posted by Colorado Dave on July 12, 2007 09:13 AMWow...I must say I agree with Vince on both accounts. Well written article.
Posted by jay on July 12, 2007 10:32 AM