2008 Woodie Awards
We can learn a few lessons from upsetting events
Issue date: 3/19/08 Section: Voices
My observation is that the opportunity for teaching has usually been lost over the last 25 years during the April hysteria in which demands for outcome are made without an in-depth foundational base.
Acquiescing to the demand for the student's name would likely violate the federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the violation of which can place in jeopardy all federal grants to the University. The University's policy under FERPA can be found, with references to the federal law, on the University's website at: http://www.registars.cmich.edu/records/confidentiality.htm. A statute under which the prosecutor might proceed is "Ethnic Intimidation." Based on that which you have read in CM Life, how easy or hard do you think it would be for the prosecutor to get a conviction under the statute? That statute, which is a two-year felony, states (Michigan Compiled Laws 750.147b):
Sec. 147b. (1) A person is guilty of ethnic intimidation if that person maliciously, and with specific intent to intimidate or harass another person because of that person's race, color, religion, gender, or national origin, does any of the following:
(a) Causes physical contact with another person.
(b) Damages, destroys, or defaces any real or personal property of another person.
(c) Threatens, by word or act, to do an act described in subdivision (a) or (b), if there is reasonable cause to believe that an act described in subdivision (a) or (b) will occur.
(2) Ethnic intimidation is a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 2 years, or by a fine of not more than $5,000.00, or both.
As April approaches and arrives, it will be interesting to watch that which prevails regarding the noose incident at Central Michigan University: (1) teaching and learning or (2) hysteria.
J. David Kerr
Mount Pleasant Attorney
Acquiescing to the demand for the student's name would likely violate the federal Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the violation of which can place in jeopardy all federal grants to the University. The University's policy under FERPA can be found, with references to the federal law, on the University's website at: http://www.registars.cmich.edu/records/confidentiality.htm. A statute under which the prosecutor might proceed is "Ethnic Intimidation." Based on that which you have read in CM Life, how easy or hard do you think it would be for the prosecutor to get a conviction under the statute? That statute, which is a two-year felony, states (Michigan Compiled Laws 750.147b):
Sec. 147b. (1) A person is guilty of ethnic intimidation if that person maliciously, and with specific intent to intimidate or harass another person because of that person's race, color, religion, gender, or national origin, does any of the following:
(a) Causes physical contact with another person.
(b) Damages, destroys, or defaces any real or personal property of another person.
(c) Threatens, by word or act, to do an act described in subdivision (a) or (b), if there is reasonable cause to believe that an act described in subdivision (a) or (b) will occur.
(2) Ethnic intimidation is a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than 2 years, or by a fine of not more than $5,000.00, or both.
As April approaches and arrives, it will be interesting to watch that which prevails regarding the noose incident at Central Michigan University: (1) teaching and learning or (2) hysteria.
J. David Kerr
Mount Pleasant Attorney
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