Wednesday, January 10, 2007
I Would Have Flunked Him, Too
Now, while I admit there's some legitimacy to this former Duke lacrosse player's anger, seeing as the girl his team was charged with raping suddenly forgot whether or not she had actually been raped (which also makes you wonder whether she was either making it all up to begin with or paid off), you are not going to convince me that 1) a class called "Politics and Literature" is not completely subjective or that 2) an "F" merits a $60,000 lawsuit. Someone should just read his final paper aloud to the jury and let them decide whether he deserves to fail or not.
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(C+) + (C-) + F + F = D . This is what you would usually expect unless someone has it in for you. The problem with failing someone with the scores just described is that it says that the student did not just get an F, but F-. A very very low type of F especially in cases where no actual number grade is given. Yes he did miss 6 classes out of 20, but at least one of them was for a lacrosse match so he should not be penalized for that one, if he is penalized the prof would have to explain why and show that she treats all student athlete the same (if she does penalize all studens athletes then a lot of student and probably the Duke faculty might have a big problem with that).
Of the 5 remaining absences he seems to have followed some type of procedures which involves emailing the teacher. If she can prove she treated everyone with absences that followed the same procedure with the same harshness, then she is fine , but to that I say good luck, remember we are not just talking F here, but an F- in order to give him an overall F.
The difficulty in showing a below F grade, i.e. an F- in probably why Duke made the change and cited calculation error.
To me the calculation error story is more than enough to bring the law suit, especially if there is reason to believe that she might do the same to other student (the only two players to get F in the class were lacross players, could be just bad luck for her but I guess will see...) and also as a warning to other returning players (i.e. let them know that this could occur with this or other profs).
As for $60 000, give me a break, by American civil suit standards, this is just a symbolic amount, Dukes finances will not even feel the hit. I almost think the amount is made to force Duke to settle by admitting wrong doing, because if they don't, they will almost certainly pay more than 60 000$ in legal representation.
Oh yes, in order to give a F, she would also have to show that the paper was so horrible as to deserver an F-. I truly don't think the final F was warranted, and from the looks of it neither did Duke. Keep in mind that while it migh be hard to differentiate a B paper from a C paper, detecting an F paper is somewhat easier, and detecting an F- should be even easier. I am sure that the defence will use some type of comparative method to show that the paper was not an F as she says it is.
If she did in fact penalize him for his grade, then she deserver everything that is comings to her. I am completely aware that if this was a grade with no publicity, she would have won, and the case would never have gone to trial, however, things being what they are, she better have documentation that backs her claims that she was fair.
I.e.
must be able to show that other student were treated the same for being absent.
Show the quality of the paper was indeed an F.
I am not one of those who think he should remain with a D in his transcript as I did get a D once in university, and in one of the rare case where a job had asked me for past transcript, I ended up having the explain that D to the interviewer, something I could have done without. Of course I did not get that job.
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