Editorials

Assault Perpetrators Must be Expelled
 
The assault which occurred in a male student’s room in Barnard on March 17 was a disturbing escalation of recent tensions on Oberlin’s campus. It is always a shock whenever any assault occurs at Oberlin. Recent years have seen at least one vicious assault on a student per year; this is not the first this year, either. But the apparent reason for the assault is perhaps even more troubling. 

The victim, a staff member of The Grape, is the author of a biweekly humor column for that paper. His last column, “Don’t Call It A Surprise When The Bullets Fly,” compared Oberlin athletes to the marginalized students who have been responsible for high school shootings. He said in the column, “This just in, [the victim’s] name has moved to the top of the ‘to shoot’ list.” According to police logs, one of the alleged perpetrators of the assault reportedly had said earlier in the evening that the victim “needed to have his ass kicked.” The Review does not presume to be a court of justice and accepts that all those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty. But the available evidence paints a deeply troubling picture. That a student could possibly be assaulted for the exercise of free speech in one of Oberlin’s most cherished forums — the editorial page — is a terrifying thought. 

The debates that have raged in these pages over the last month have been impassioned ones; one would expect nothing less from Oberlin students. Strong words have been exchanged, grudges have developed and enemies have been made, but none of this is anything new to Oberlin political discourse. Arrests on assault charges against fellow students as a response to speech would be a new wrinkle in the landscape. 

The Oberlin community must be very careful in its response to this incident. As a community, we must remember that this was an act perpetrated by individuals — not by a class or type of student, by a team or by a dorm, but by individuals. The perpetrators’ potential punishment will be determined in a court of law and by the College. Vigilante justice of harassment would lower its practitioners nearly to the level of those who perpetrated this incident and the College community must make sure to allow the proceedings of the courts and the College’s Judicial Board to proceed undisturbed so as to allow the truth of the incident to be discovered.

The College has struggled over the last several years with its Safety and Security services, and there is mounting student dissatisfaction with them. This latest incident and another described in a letter to the Editor in this week’s paper, will further hurt student perceptions. Thankfully, the College is taking steps to address this issue and is in discussions with security consultants in an attempt to improve campus safety. This is good, but the College must go a step further. The perpetrators of this assault, no matter the outcome of the criminal proceedings, must be expelled if they are accurately identified by Judicial Board proceedings. There is no room for compromise in this matter: any student who would break into a fellow student’s room and assault him — especially for that fellow student’s thoughts and views — has no place at Oberlin College.

Editorials are the responsibility of the Review editorial board –– the Editor in Chief, Managing Editor and Perspectives Editor –– and do not necessarily reflect the view of the staff of the Review.