Posted on 04/09/2021 12:44:14 PM PDT by grundle
Kieran Bhattacharya's First Amendment lawsuit can proceed, a court said.
Kieran Bhattacharya is a student at the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine. On October 25, 2018, he attended a panel discussion on the subject of microaggressions. Dissatisfied with the definition of a microaggression offered by the presenter—Beverly Cowell Adams, an assistant dean—Bhattacharya raised his hand.
Within a few weeks, as a result of the fallout from Bhattacharya's question about microagressions, the administration had branded him a threat to the university and banned him from campus. He is now suing UVA for violating his First Amendment rights, and a judge recently ruled that his suit should proceed.
Here was what the student said.
"Thank you for your presentation," said Bhattacharya, according to an audio recording of the event. "I had a few questions, just to clarify your definition of microaggressions. Is it a requirement, to be a victim of microaggression, that you are a member of a marginalized group?"
Adams replied that it wasn't a requirement.
Bhattacharya suggested that this was contradictory, since a slide in her presentation had defined microaggressions as negative interactions with members of marginalized groups. Adams and Bhattacharya then clashed for a few minutes about how to define the term. It was a polite disagreement. Adams generally maintained that microaggression theory was a broad and important topic and that the slights caused real harm. Bhattacharya expressed a scientific skepticism that a microaggression could be distinguished from an unintentionally rude statement. His doubts were wellfounded given that microaggression theory is not a particularly rigorous concept.
But Nora Kern*, an assistant professor who helped to organize the event, thought Bhattacharya's questions were a bit too pointed. Immediately following the panel, she filed a "professionalism concern card"—a kind of record of a student's violations of university policy.
"This student asked a series of questions that were quite antagonistic toward the panel," wrote Kern. "He pressed on and stated one faculty member was being contradictory. His level of frustration/anger seemed to escalate until another faculty member defused the situation by calling on another student for questions. I am shocked that a med student would show so little respect toward faculty members. It worries me how he will do on wards."
According to Bhattacharya's lawsuit, the concern card generated interest from an assistant dean in the medical school, who emailed him and offered to meet. The assistant dean assured him that "I simply want to help you understand and be able to cope with unintended consequences of conversations."
Bhattacharya responded that contrary to anyone's assertions, he had not lost his temper or become frustrated with the panel:
Your observed discomfort of me from wherever you sat was not at all how I felt. I was quite happy that the panel gave me so much time to engage with them about the semantics regarding the comparison of microaggressions and barbs. I have no problems with anyone on the panel; I simply wanted to give them some basic challenges regarding the topic. And I understand that there is a wide range of acceptable interpretations on this. I would be happy to meet with you at your convenience to discuss this further.
Then a dean of student affairs asked to meet as well.
Meanwhile, the Academic Standards and Achievement Committee met to to discuss the concern card. This committee voted to send Bhattacharya a written reminder to "show mutual respect" to faculty members and "express yourself appropriately." The committee also suggested that he get counseling. Biden Willing To Compromise on $2.3 Trillion Spending Bill So Long As It Spends $2.3 Trillion
On November 26, this suggestion became a mandate: The student was informed that he must be evaluated by psychological services before returning to classes. Bhattacharya repeatedly asked university officials to clarify what exactly he was accused of, under whose authority his counseling had been mandated, and why his enrollment status was suddenly in doubt, according to the lawsuit. These queries only appear to have made UVA officials more determined to punish him: Bhattacharya's mounting frustration with these baseless accusations of unspecified wrongdoings was essentially treated as evidence that he was guilty. At his hearing, he was accused of being "extremely defensive" and ordered to change his "aggressive, threatening behavior."
He was ultimately suspended for "aggressive and inappropriate interactions in multiple situations." On December 30, UVA police ordered him to leave campus.
UVA's administration engaged in behavior that can be described as "gaslighting." Administrators asserted that Bhattacharya had behaved aggressively when he hadn't, and then cited his increasing confusion, frustration, and hostility toward the disciplinary process as evidence that he was aggressive. And all of this because Bhattacharya asked an entirely fair question about microaggressions, a fraught subject.
His lawsuit contends that UVA violated his First Amendment rights by retaliating against him for speaking his mind. UVA filed a motion to dismiss the case, but a district court judge ruled that the suit could proceed.
"Bhattacharya sufficiently alleges that Defendants retaliated against him," wrote the court. "Indeed, they issued a Professionalism Concern Card against him, suspended him from UVA Medical School, required him to undergo counseling and obtain 'medical clearance' as a prerequisite for remaining enrolled, and prevented him from appealing his suspension or applying for readmission."
It is vital that UVA lose this case, and lose badly. Students must have the right to question administrators about poorly formed concepts from social psychology without fearing that they will be branded as threats to public order. That's the difference between a public university and an asylum.
He also claimed that the Earth revolves around the sun... Heretic!!
Thomas Jefferson would be so proud of his university.
Went to graduate school there...I can’t even bring myself to read the alumni magazine they keep sending me.
he was accused of being “extremely defensive” and ordered to change his “aggressive, threatening behavior.”
I wonder how many times a version of this macroagression has been said to a person questioning ‘woke’ policy? I’d imagine a lot if it’s someone from a ‘non-marginaized group’.
Microaggressions are a peculiar anomaly that only exist in closed bubbles like universities. Try that crap outside the bubbles and these leftist weenies will burst into flames.
Can’t have students just randomly engaging in critical thinking at UVA Medical School - might go viral...
I am interested to see how this turns out. I hope that Kieran Bhattacharya wins the case.
I hope this kid OWNS that shitbox UVA after this railroad job!
Whiny, at one point you would have been told to put on your big girl panties and cope. It would have been a learning moment.
Now, just shut up, you ignorant slut.
I have no time for you and your tantrums.
Another whiff of the Soviet style.
No freedom of speech for you!
These kinds of tactics of gaslighting have even worked their way into the business sector. A mere business or engineering disagreement, expressed in a professional matter, can be twisted into being a violent threat, where the employee is accused of being aggressive, disruptive, irrational. The employee is then placed in a “Performance Improvement Program”, where the employee has obstacles thrown his way, increased workload, and is basically set up to fail. And it is all due to a “personality fault”, where he is then deemed incompetent to do his job. It is a setting up to fail.
I have been hit with this crap. I had a kidney stone while on a weekend vacation, wound up in the ER. I got back to work, got hit with a drug test. Presto, in spite of hospital records, I have an opiate problem, while the only painkillers I had were administered by a doctor in the ER. Medical evidence did not matter, the zampolit declared that I was an opiate addict.
Not only should he sue the state employees directly responsible, he should personally sue anyone in a supervisory capacity as far up the chain of command as possible. These people need to feel real pain - to the point that they are at least temporarily living under a bridge. Their careers must be ended, maybe finding a new line of work in a Walmart.
I attempted to answer your question moments ago and decided to delete my response because it was too bleak.
Still, the Ninevites repented: “When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.”
Something like that could happen to America.
There is this poem by Kipling that is very appropriate for these times, especially the last stanza, called “The Gods of the Copybook Headings”. See what you think.
http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_copybook.htm
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