Law Schools delaying exams because of “trauma"

[Anonymous]

My classes were not even canceled on 9/11 or the day after.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know at Berkeley they have had to close campus early a few days to keep the chaos down. Perhaps it had more to do with logistics in reality than trauma.

Read the letter from the dean. It was because of trauma.

- The law school has a policy and set of procedures for students who experience trauma during exam period. In accordance with these procedures and policy, students who feel that their performance on examinations will be sufficiently impaired due to the effects of these recent events may petition Dean Alice Rigas to have an examination rescheduled.

Berkeley is not Columbia. If several law schools are doing this, they may all be acting for different reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ha ha they think this is trauma. Just wait until they get out there in the real world especially as lawyers.

+1. wait until they can find only a low paying job after graduation and realize that it will take decades to repay their student loans.

my law firm is in dowtown DC and on 9/11 we evacuated. a group of colleagues had a deadline for a big job that Friday and they stayed and worked; they worked until late the next day (the firm was closed, as most businesses in DC) and every day until Friday and met the deadline. all this with the news showing images of what had happened 24/7 and with threats of possible additional attacks.

this is simply ridiculous, I would be ashamed if I was an alumni of that law school.

[Anonymous]

Maybe I should try the trauma excuse for not paying my mortgage on time.

How well do you think that will go over?

[Anonymous]

if they think that was trauma just wait until they see their student loan total .................

what a joke, if they are so traumatized, I hope once they finally get over it and are stable enough to take their exams they will go volunteer down there to maybe help rebuild a business or clean the streets up etc.

[Anonymous]

This blows my mind. Unless the campus is on fire, what is the problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I were an alumnus of one of these schools, I would be contacting the president and complaining about this decision, especially if I regularly donated to the university. It just makes the university look bad. Grooming law school students who can’t deal with “trauma.” How ironic.

Thank you. Great Idea. I'm calling Dean Martha Minnow at HLS right now and encouraging her not to fall prey to this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the ones who are looting are thugs, and the ones who are distraught are weaklings. Is there any appropriate reaction in your mind, other than applause?

there's nothing wrong with being distraught, but if you try to explain to a client that you didn't meet their deadline b/c of trauma associated with a public event you will be out of a job fast. plenty of people are very upset by this and are still managing to get their work done.[/quote]they are years away from having their own clients.

No, if 3Ls, they would be starting with law firms in May or June, unless they are clerking for a judge. Firms market themselves to students as allowing immediate "client access". Same holds true with summer associates - students working for firms between the school years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So the ones who are looting are thugs, and the ones who are distraught are weaklings. Is there any appropriate reaction in your mind, other than applause?

As long as it's legal and not harming anyone, I think any reaction is appropriate. People are going to feel however they feel. But I think there are inappropriate ways to express appropriate reactions. Regardless of people's feelings about something going on in the world they still need to suck it up and deal with life. Be distraught or traumatized on your own time; hold it together at school or work, or preferably anywhere public.

I would feel completely differently if the article was about the family or friends of someone who died needing to postpone academic obligations. I definitely think that sort of grief should be accommodated with sensitivity. However this article, as far as I can tell, is about students who did not know or have a personal relationship with the victim in the Ferguson incident, so this reaction seems ridiculous and self-indulgent to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the ones who are looting are thugs, and the ones who are distraught are weaklings. Is there any appropriate reaction in your mind, other than applause?

As long as it's legal and not harming anyone, I think any reaction is appropriate. People are going to feel however they feel. But I think there are inappropriate ways to express appropriate reactions. Regardless of people's feelings about something going on in the world they still need to suck it up and deal with life. Be distraught or traumatized on your own time; hold it together at school or work, or preferably anywhere public.

I would feel completely differently if the article was about the family or friends of someone who died needing to postpone academic obligations. I definitely think that sort of grief should be accommodated with sensitivity. However this article, as far as I can tell, is about students who did not know or have a personal relationship with the victim in the Ferguson incident, so this reaction seems ridiculous and self-indulgent to me.

Not to mention, that these are students who will presumably be practicing law. Imagine if they suffer “trauma” because a judgment doesn’t go their way, or something happens in the course of a trial. Just so silly. Are these students really this fragile?

[Anonymous]

Think they'd be as generous with allowing a student to postpone their exams if they said they were traumatized by the recent executive action and it causing them to lose faith in the separation of powers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the ones who are looting are thugs, and the ones who are distraught are weaklings. Is there any appropriate reaction in your mind, other than applause?

As long as it's legal and not harming anyone, I think any reaction is appropriate. People are going to feel however they feel. But I think there are inappropriate ways to express appropriate reactions. Regardless of people's feelings about something going on in the world they still need to suck it up and deal with life. Be distraught or traumatized on your own time; hold it together at school or work, or preferably anywhere public.

I would feel completely differently if the article was about the family or friends of someone who died needing to postpone academic obligations. I definitely think that sort of grief should be accommodated with sensitivity. However this article, as far as I can tell, is about students who did not know or have a personal relationship with the victim in the Ferguson incident, so this reaction seems ridiculous and self-indulgent to me.

Not to mention, that these are students who will presumably be practicing law. Imagine if they suffer “trauma” because a judgment doesn’t go their way, or something happens in the course of a trial. Just so silly. Are these students really this fragile?

I hate to say it, but some really are this fragile. I say this as someone with inside knowledge of law schools these days. It's just that bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the ones who are looting are thugs, and the ones who are distraught are weaklings. Is there any appropriate reaction in your mind, other than applause?

As long as it's legal and not harming anyone, I think any reaction is appropriate. People are going to feel however they feel. But I think there are inappropriate ways to express appropriate reactions. Regardless of people's feelings about something going on in the world they still need to suck it up and deal with life. Be distraught or traumatized on your own time; hold it together at school or work, or preferably anywhere public.

I would feel completely differently if the article was about the family or friends of someone who died needing to postpone academic obligations. I definitely think that sort of grief should be accommodated with sensitivity. However this article, as far as I can tell, is about students who did not know or have a personal relationship with the victim in the Ferguson incident, so this reaction seems ridiculous and self-indulgent to me.

Not to mention, that these are students who will presumably be practicing law. Imagine if they suffer “trauma” because a judgment doesn’t go their way, or something happens in the course of a trial. Just so silly. Are these students really this fragile?

I would love to know the number of students who now get special accommodations like extra time on tests due to supposed learning disabilities, ADHD, etc. I don't want a lawyer who needs extra time to read or complete work, particularly if I am being billed by the hour. It is a slippery slope - everyone is special. So if other students get accommodations like extra time, why not get extra time to study due to trauma.

I hate to say it, but some really are this fragile. I say this as someone with inside knowledge of law schools these days. It's just that bad.

[Anonymous]

1L exams were happening at Columbia RIGHT when the Eric Garner non-indictment came out. Every black student was probably incredibly affected by that, if even for only 12 hours. Losing those 12 hours in the middle of intense study could definitely tank an exam.

That said, I think it's a bad idea for any student to postpone the exam unless they were truly incapacitated. It's just got to be even harder to try to make up that exam over Christmas or in the 2nd semester. Better to just focus as best you can and get it out of the way by the due date. In that sense, it is sort of like being a "real lawyer." The crap work does not stop for anything ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look I'm as conservative as they come but there has to be more going on here than simply a display of end stage liberalism? Please someone explain. Whats the reality behind this. If this is what our best and brightest have to offer, we really are doomed...

Sure. You are a black law student at a top university like Harvard. You are busting your ass convinced that if you keep working hard, success is around the corner. Then a series of events happens that convinces you that no matter what you do, the world still views you as inferior. Specifically, the legal system you are striving so hard to enter is letting you down. It could make any young adult despondent.

Alright… why no despondence over black on black drug and gangland violence killing thousands every year? Why no despondence of the ethnic cleansing of thousands of black babies through abortion every year? Despondence is reserved for a thug who died while attacking a police officer and a man who died because the police obeyed the order of a black female police sergeant to comply with the Mayor’s war on black-market loosies??

It’s your naiveté (or ignorance??) which encourages and cultivates ‘despondence’ among our youth. Even then, so what if you are despondent?? I’m despondent over a great many things but I get up every day despite marital woes, health woes, economic woe, depression woes and go to work and provide for my family.

I was hoping to hear this lunacy at Columbia is an anomaly but your statement worries me it’s the norm. Imagine such ‘despondence’ in 1861, blacks would still be slaves; 1941… we’d be speaking German or Japanese, those of us lucky enough to survive the camps that is. Imagine this despondence 1960; we’d be speaking Russian comrade, those of us lucky enough not to be at the Gulag…

My worst fears about liberalism have been confirmed… and to imagine once upon a time I voted for John Kerry… never again, never again!

Great post (the one starting with Alright..). The hysterical outrage is misplaced and being manipulated by weasel-y politicians.