They’re suspended, kind of.
The 13 fourth-year dentistry students at Dalhousie who were involved in the Class of DDS 2015 Gentlemen Facebook group have been temporarily suspended from clinical activities by the university. That announcement was made this morning by Dalhousie, just hours before a few hundred gathered on campus to protest the school’s disciplinary actions so far.
The suspensions can be lifted pending consideration by the dentistry faculty’s academic standards class committee. That group will be considering whether the 13 students have violated their professionalism requirements. It’s a formal approach looking at the requirements to be a dentistry student, and not the informal sexual harassment policies Dal has so far been using.
According to a press conference this morning, the male students in question are only suspended from clinical practice. The university has yet to decide whether the 13 will be allowed back in class. Fourth-year dentistry lectures have been postponed a week, to deal with the fall-out. The men could end up segregated from their classmates. It’s possible they’ll still be allowed on campus and able to attend classes, as well as participate in any athletic teams or student societies they may be a part of. Like so many parts of this mess, Dalhousie is still figuring it out.
It’s a reversal, of sorts, from what the university was telling the public before Christmas. On December 17, president Richard Florizone held a press conference championing an informal restorative justice approach which he claimed was chosen by the women directly harmed. The Coast, and other media outlets, have since reported several women directly impacted by the hateful Facebook posts did not seek nor approve of any informal disciplinary measures.
The university later softened its position, stating expulsion and suspension were still possible outcomes. Florizone had previously told the media he did not feel there was a public safety issue from the 13 men involved in the Facebook group treating patients.
The decision to suspend the men was apparently made on December 22, but not communicated until now. Florizone told media today that was due to “credible” threats of self-harm by some of the men in the group. The university wanted to make sure all students were back in Halifax and had “the proper supports” in place in terms of student counselling.
Students in the dentistry and dental hygiene schools are meeting all day today to overview the past few weeks and discuss schedule changes. The university will also be detailing the restorative justice process (which is still ongoing) and advising students about available counselling.
Thomas Boran, dean of the faculty of dentistry, told the media at today’s press conference that the scandal has “totally rocked our administration.”
Dalhousie has also launched a new section of its website today, entitled Culture of Respect, to address some of the more pointed questions the press and public had had for the administration.
According to Florizone, the formal complaint filed by four Dalhousie faculty members is still being dealt with. The university will have an update on that call for an independent investigation later this week.
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This article appears in Dec 25-31, 2014.
No woman, and no man, had the courage to step forward and lay a complaint about the facebook comments ?
How many dentistry students were aware of the facebook comments and when did they become aware of the comments ?
Do we have a generation where courage is no longer in the lexicon ?
” Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened. “
Funny, Joeblow, the same mechanism that leads to your quote being true also leads to similar behavior we’ve seen in this FB group. Check out CrashCourse on youtube, pyshology series, #37 and #38 on social thinking and social influences. It describes this behavior pretty well. It can work for good, or bad, as in this case.
While you’re at it, watch #39 on prejudice and discrimiation, also very applicable to other social issues we’re seeing today, particularly all the issues with black people being shot by cops in the states.
Joeblow; The four professors responsible for the formal complaint laid last week did so on behalf of students who fear retribution.
But: the postings are a violation of the Dalhousie Code of Conduct, and the Dentistry Code of Professional Conduct. Now that the posts are public, there is no need for a complaint. The women did nothing. The women were not involved. The posts stand as evidence.
Who has the courage to lay a complaint against the prof who showed the New Zealand tourism bikini ladies at an 8 a.m. class and told the men it was a ‘wake up’ call ?
When you lay a complaint against a professional person it is like laying down a marker and saying ‘ I noticed your behaviour and you should be accountable to the public and your peers’
Professional organisations generally encourage complaints and many have public hearings. Media usually just cover the ‘bad cop’ disciplinary hearings.
If the women were upset several of them could have filed a complaint, a much better decision than remaining silent and risking the possibility of the men graduating and then entering practice. By their silence they risked causing damage to people they would never know.
The media are just as complicit in their silence : Mount Cashel, common knowledge in St John’s but never reported by CBC or the Telegram.
Joe blow: you’re asking the wrong question of the wrong people. I firmly believe that had these “gentlemen” come forward when the story broke, admitted what they did was stupid and wrong, and threw themselves at the mercy of the university’s disciplinary committee, all parties concerned could have come out for the better. But all you need to do is read some of their comments from the FB page listed at another coast story ( ones like “apology? Fuck that! This whole thing is ridiculous!”) to know why the university’s response is inadequate. How are they supposed to reconcile with someone like that? This should be treated as if they were real dentists right now. The women who would sign up for dentistry in the future need to know that their male colleagues can’t be allowed to make them feel like their safety is a joke and their human dignity is off no value. It sucks to be caught in public being a sexist asshole – which is why you shouldn’t be one. So absolutely no sympathy there. The longer these jerks assume speech comes with no consequences, the more they prove they don’t deserve to graduate from a professional programme.
Once these animals graduate and have their own practices it will be easier to hate f&$@ someone who is under anesthetic…..expell them…when a person shows you who they are, Believe them!!!