We have recently discussed a number of incidents of professors acting badly in shouting down student protesters or journalists on campus. (here and here and here). This has include prior attacks on pro-life demonstrators. Now a teenage pro-life demonstrators has accused a University of California (Santa Barbar) professor of taking her sign and assaulting her on campus. Thrin Short, 16, and her sister Joan, 21, have posted a videotape of Feminist Studies Associate Professor Mireille Miller-Young walking away with their sign and getting into a confrontation with the teenagers.
The Shorts were handing out pro-life pamphlets when they say Miller-Young confronted them and became irate over their demonstration. They videotaped her after she appeared to organize students in yelling “take down the sign.” They say that she grabbed the sign and walked off–ignoring the protests of the teenagers. Campus police were called and Short says that she was pushed by Miller-Young three times — leaving bruises on her wrists — at an elevator confrontation.
On the video below, Miller-Young is seen taking the sign with graphic images and saying “I may be a thief but you are a terrorist.” At the elevator, she can be seen shoving the teenagers and blocking them. The fact (as noted by her students) that the teenagers do not go to the school is no excuse for this type of conduct. If there was some real violation in the protests (which seems dubious), Miller-Young has no authority to quash the speech. This appears a clear content-based act by Miller-Young. It is even more disturbing to see her encouraging her students to silence opposing views by stealing a sign. It is the very antithesis of the academic mission which is based first and foremost on free speech and association — and civility.
Miller-Young lists her areas as “Pornography; Sex Work; Black Film, Popular Culture and Art; Feminist & Queer Theory; African American & African Diaspora Studies; Visual Archives; New Media; Ethnography; Oral History.” Her bio states that she focuses on pornography and African-American women.
According to reports, Miller-Young has retained an attorney. Catherine Swysen of law firm Sanger Swysen & Dunkle (Notably, Swysen draws not only from her considerable legal experience but experience as a former teacher in the University of California system). She is making no comment but a student her Women of Color class, insisted that she was write to do what she did because “She’s pregnant, so she’s very sensitive to horrifying images like that.” It is very distressful to see a student supporting anti-free speech conduct, a concern expressed recently with regard to French students in suing Twitter.
She could face assault charges based on the videotape. My greatest concern is with her conduct as a faculty member. There are few violations as serious by an academic than attacking free speech or violently trying to stop the expression of viewpoints. Her actions are clearly incompatible with the position of a faculty member. The question is whether the university will act to remove her from the faculty based on this videotape. Putting aside the criminal allegations (that should be left to the criminal justice system), there is the separate question of her judgment and conduct as an academic. The delay in issuing an apology is only going to reaffirm concerns in the minds of some faculty. I fail to see a viable defense for this conduct. Once again, regardless of the status of these teenagers or the disturbing images of the protests, this was an act of free speech. If there is a prohibition on such displays (which would itself raise free speech issues), this was not how academics address controversial speech. If Miller-Young had a legal concern, she can call the police — not lead students in stealing signs and trying to silence their speech.
The faculty code states that faculty “accept the obligation to exercise critical self-discipline and judgment in using, extending, and transmitting knowledge.” This includes a prohibition on “any exploitation, harassment, or discriminatory treatment of students.” Misconduct includes:
1. Intentional disruption of functions or activities sponsored or authorized by the University.
2. Incitement of others to disobey University rules when such incitement constitutes a clear and present danger that violence or abuse against persons or property will occur or that the University’s central functions will be significantly impaired.
The admission on the tape that she has stolen the sign will not help in any university investigation. Regardless of any claim of provocation by Miller-Young, the means chosen by the professor is clearly unacceptable and inimical to the academic mission. To call people with opposing views “terrorists” is a shocking view for an intellectual. To enlist students in an act of censorship only magnifies that violation.
What do you think should be the proper discipline (if any) for Miller-Young?
Paul, Did you see Dallas Buyer’s Club. Jared Leto was hot!!
Nick – I did see American Hustle and Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence were hot. Christian Bale was not. 🙂
Strawman and false equivalences are logical fallacies. For help or therapy to take place, those three dimensions of respect, genuineness and empathy must be present. They were first postulated more than a half century ago, and thousands of research papers later, they still hold up. It doesn’t matter if the counselor is a psychoanalyst or behaviorist in theory. A researcher named Fisher proved that with two landmark studies back in 1950 and ’51.
Carl Rogers postulated that a client/patient must WANT to change in order for counseling and change to take place. That theory has held up as well. If a person wants to be a pedophile, we have other ways of dealing with that besides counseling. Even in our inmate therapeutic community program, inmates had to apply and be screened to see if they were really interested in getting help for their recreational chemical problem. We did not accept anybody just because a judge ordered them to enroll in the program. We made sure the local judges understood that.
Paul, I hope you told your brother that too much rouge is a dead giveaway.
nick – he was horrible at doing his own make-up. The first time I did his make up for him. After that I taught him how to do and then ‘approved’ it before he went out.
We show high school children graphic videos of car accidents @ prom time to let them know the consequences of drinking and driving. We have videos for younger children to teach them not to play w/ firearms and the graphic consequences if they do. We have graphic videos to show young people the consequences of using hard drugs. Why the hell not give a young woman THE FACTS. This is the fetus you are about to abort. “The truth shall make you free.” I do not want abortion eliminated as an option. I do want women to know the facts!
Carlton – I got thinking about your comment “Counseling? What is your definition of counseling? Trying to talk someone out of something you don’t agree with is NOT counseling.” I realized that it was tragically flawed. If a psychologist or psychiatrist did not agree with pedophilia, using your definition, they would not be able to counsel the person.
I have a lesbian friend who, in the early ’60s, was committed by a psychiatrist to a mental institution where she received electro-shock therapy and counseling for being a lesbian, something the counselor did not like. It did not take but she pretended that it did. However, she did lose some memories.
So, is the purpose of counseling to gently talk bunny-boilers into boiling more bunnies? Arsonists into burning more buildings? I think not. My youngest brother was sent to a psychiatrist because he was a gay cross-dresser. Instead of helping him deal with his issues and better understand himself, the doctor tried to cure him. Personally, I taught him how to do a better job with his make-up.
david,
You don’t get it. One of the key elements of counseling is RESPECT. That is, you do not try to insert your values into the discussion. The element of GENUINENESS is to not have a hidden agenda of your own. I don’t think attempting to traumatize a newly pregnant woman by making her look at ultrasounds she does not want to look at is even close to those dimensions. And that is just for openers. I seriously doubt you want my full four semesters of lectures of lectures on the subject.
Chuck wrote: “One of the key elements of counseling is RESPECT. That is, you do not try to insert your values into the discussion. The element of GENUINENESS is to not have a hidden agenda of your own.”
I agree with you on this aspect. I don’t think you understand that we are not talking about these people in the article with the signs. We are talking about a professional counselor like you simply taking time to inform the patient of the psychological and medical aspects of the procedure. There should be no agenda of either dissuading or persuading the person to have the procedure.
I fail to see how viewing an ultrasound is traumatizing. Most women love to see their unborn babies in an ultrasound. They pay extra money in order to have it done. It seems to me that any woman considering an abortion ought to have the option to view the ultrasound free of charge if she wants to see exactly what she is doing. If she doesn’t want to view it, fine. The point is that women should not be pressured into an abortion that will later haunt her for years as she learns more about what the unborn baby really is. She should not be set up for troublesome regret afterward. The abortion provider who is providing the abortion should be responsible to provide as much information as possible. We should learn from the women who have had abortions and later greatly regretted it. We should use such information to minimize as much as possible the negative aspects of abortion, especially the psychological trauma it causes in a great many women.
Paul wrote:
“as a veteran of teaching high schoolers, I can tell you how much they actually absorb. The theory is that you have to repeat the same thing 3 times for 80% of the class to get it”
~+~
I can see how that might be the case generally, yet I feel there is enough information on abortion elsewhere in the media and society for persons that age to have a good idea of what is involved on most levels.
I can see the situation where not every young woman of the age group in discussion in the general population knows from a medical standpoint what exactly is involved, and from a visual perspective, that those who want to advocate this have a point in the matter. It is a relatively easy thing to know that the pregnancy is to be terminated and that the fetus will be removed in the procedure, so I can see where the anti-abortion supporters are coming from in this respect. I think there are many examples in life where having a removed and somewhat veiled perspective can make decisions less uncomfortable or difficult and this might enhance the person to make that decision, for better or worse.
It’s open for debate I suppose on an individual level where each person that demonstrates their view to those who are considering having an abortion. One group might want to provide information in the hope that the woman will reconsider all optoins and another might hope the images will be so shocking it will fully disuade the woman. But I think both have the same goal in mind.
And Samantha, on the first thread regarding this incident, I unequivocally stated that this Professor was wrong and the girls had a RIGHT to protest. Feel free to look it up.
David, Paul offers no information I haven’t already heard ad nauseum from the anti choice crowd. Plus he creeped me out with that comment about my daughters. I’m really not going to waste my time debating something I’ve debated many times over and have never come to a consensus over.It’s disrespectful to push your opinions on me when I’ve stated I’m no going to discuss it further. If you folks want to discuss abortion once again, feel free to do so without me.
Samantha, I cared for all sorts of people who I probably didn’t agree with politically and gave them excellent care. You would’ve been lucky to have me as your nurse. It’s underhanded to disparage me as a nurse because you disagree with my stance on abortion, or my opinion on any given subject.
anniefowi said:
“As IF these university students don’t already know exactly what abortion is.”
Manufacturers will not waste money on adverts, repeating them over and over, if there are no benefits in swaying minds. But that aside, if these adolescent protesters prevent one pregnancy, you come off as if that is a bad thing. Then you comment again, to compensate, as one would after realizing the folly of her previous comment. I sure would not want to be under the care of a nurse shooting from the hip.
Paul,
Counseling? What is your definition of counseling? Trying to talk someone out of something you don’t agree with is NOT counseling. The three core elements of real counseling are empathy, respect and genuineness. I see none of those key conditions.
Chuck, Paul is not talking about counseling by these sidewalk demonstrators. He is talking about the idea that careful information is given about the unborn fetus, including viewing the unborn on an ultrasound. The idea is informed consent, not the opportunity to talk someone out of it. The problem is that many people who get abortions do not realize that their unborn baby is being mutilated and killed. They are constantly indoctrinated into the idea that an abortion is just cutting a piece of tissue from their body, like clipping your fingernails. Some videos are produced that actually falsely teach that the embryo goes through all the evolutionary stages of development, from fish, to reptile, etc. The human aspect of the unborn is denied by pro-choice abortion advocates.
Excuse me?! Paul, I just read your comment @ 6:42, about my daughters and their sex ed and their “boyfriends”. What the hell is that supposed to mean? You are overstepping the bounds of civility again, I suggest you step back.
Paul, there will not be any agreement on this issue between you and I, obviously. Again, you, in my opinion, are as wrong on this as you are on climate science.
annie wrote: “Sorry Paul, but it’s simply not true that young adults that age do not know what abortion is or does. Not only do I know this as a nurse, but also as a mother of four grown children.”
How many young adults have you assisted in getting an abortion? How many have you counseled with after an abortion?
annie – there was no uncivil intent on my part. My comment was based on my experience as a high school teacher with pregnant students and their knowledge base about sex. We offered a sex ed class which was required. It didn’t seem to take.
——–
Charlton – is talking someone into something they are not sure they want any different? I agree with the core elements of counseling which I do not see on the side of Planned Parenthood, which has a money agenda they have to deal with.
annie wrote: “Paul, there will not be any agreement on this issue between you and I…”
Please try to have an open mind. To decide ahead of time that you will not agree with someone is disrespectful. Sometimes people see an issue from different perspectives or have different experiences about it that are not false. Sometimes we can learn from the different experiences of someone else.
Sorry annie – but they are woefully ignorant of the actualities of abortion or the effect it will have on them emotionally. This is why pro-lifers continue to want to have them counselled and given a 48 hour waiting period.
Sorry Paul, but it’s simply not true that young adults that age do not know what abortion is or does. Not only do I know this as a nurse, but also as a mother of four grown children.
A video of a birth of course. 🙂
Seriously? What Sex Ed/ Health classes did they have? My teens went to a public high school and were shown the stages of development and even a birth in class.Or didn’t they have a sex ed class, maybe they went to private schools that only taught abstinence. Even in biology classes human development is taught in high school and most certainly in college!
annie – as a veteran of teaching high schoolers, I can tell you how much they actually absorb. The theory is that you have to repeat the same thing 3 times for 80% of the class to get it, after that you have to move on. I do hope that you supplemented your daughters’ education at home rather than leave it all to the school and their boyfriends.
annieofwi:
many people do not know the stages of human embryo development. By 16 weeks they look pretty human.
They had a RIGHT to be there and not have their property stolen or be accosted. I won’t dispute that.
As IF these university students don’t already know exactly what abortion is.
annie wrote: “As IF these university students don’t already know exactly what abortion is.”
As a nurse, you should know that they don’t know. I hear from teenage girls all the time how horrified they are after an abortion because they thought an abortion was like taking a pill and the pregnancy is over. They do not think of the unborn as a new life who is part of them and who is dependent upon them. Many feel lied to by the medical professionals who terminate their pregnancy. And I have known of some, who upon seeing the signs and talking with the students who do these demonstrations, decided against having an abortion.
annie – a lot of people, university students included, do not know what exactly abortion is or does. The Just Say No campaign got through to some students and the number of self-reporting virgins on college campuses is higher than it has been for a long time.
The Gosnell case opened a lot of eyes. And now, it is reported, Planned Parenthood is trying to prevent the re-election of the sister of one of Gosnell’s victims. They are supporting another candidate in the primary.
Personally, I have a weak stomach. I could not look at those pictures without throwing up. If I were walking across campus, I would avoid them.