Student kicked out of class for disagreeing that Trump election was as bad as 9/11
The College Fix ^ | 11-15-16 | Grace Curtis - Converse College
Posted on 11/20/2016, 6:04:26 PM by afraidfortherepublic
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Converse College administration responded to this report after it was published. The full response is posted below.
Women’s college loses it when Hillary Clinton loses election
When Republican Donald Trump was elected president last week, the intelligent, determined young women of Converse College – along with their esteemed instructors – lost their minds.
They posted video of themselves crying on Snapchat. They walked around campus in tears, and the administration set up “safe zones” where students weren’t allowed to discuss the election results.
One of my professors pushed back a midterm “given recent upsetting events,” and students planned to organize “silent protests” on Thursday.
If this sounds like the typical college reaction to Trump’s victory, there’s a twist: Converse is a women’s liberal arts college. From President Krista Newkirk on down, the Converse community invested a huge part of its identity in Democrat Hillary Clinton shattering the last remaining glass ceiling in America.
The only acceptable sentiments to express since Wednesday have been grief and outrage. Feelings are so raw that the few contrarians on campus have become targets.
One student even claims she got kicked out of class after she challenged her professor’s comparison of Trump’s election to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
‘Never been so disgusted in my life’ Before she was ejected from class by her professor, the student wrote a Facebook post scolding those who were “comparing 11/9 to 9/11”:
"You are comparing today to a day that killed thousands of people in MY HOME. You are disrespectful, you are unintelligent and you should think before you post things on social media. I am disgusted."
That comparison continued in the student’s class, she said. (The student requested anonymity to share her story, so The College Fix is not naming the professor either.)
The professor told the class “I haven’t felt this way since 9/11” and called Nov. 9 the second worst day in American history, according to the student. That spurred her to disagree and tell her professor it was disrespectful to those who lost their lives on 9/11.
“I went to her class and got kicked out for expressing my opinion,” the student said. She asked to meet with the dean of the department, who told her the issue would be “rectified in a professional and acceptable manner,” according to the student.
“I have never been so disgusted in my life,” the student told The Fix.