Abusive staff strike again on Kennesaw State University (KSU), this time through adviser Abby Dawson. Dawson threatened to call security on a student named Kevin Bruce, who was simply waiting to speak to someone.
“[…] sitting there waiting until someone is available is harassing them.”
–Abby Dawson
Excuse me?
I don’t know who Abby thinks she is, but her behavior is not conducive to a positive campus community. Thankfully, a Twitter and media conversation blew up largely in Kevin’s defense, and once again we learned the value of taping confrontations. Kevin was smart enough to put Dawson on tape and expose her arrogant power trip, starting the hashtag #ItsBiggerThanKSU. Good on you, Kevin.
Once again we see University staff using unsubstantiated allegations of “harassment” to harass students in a fit of projection. I’ve gone through a similar nightmare from the Interdisciplinary Studies Department. KSU now more than ever needs to recognize that allegations of harassment can be a form of harassment in themselves.
KSU is investigating context surrounding Kevin’s video, but I know from personal experience that KSU’s Legal Division and Behavioral Response Team has the University’s best interests in mind, not the students’. For that reason, I am sending an open invitation to Kevin and his friends to contact us and share his perspective. We will defend his standing as a student and presume his innocence until guilt of harassment is proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Considering that Dawson’s idea of “harassment” involves sitting in a waiting room, I doubt that KSU can come up with a valid excuse to give Kevin any more trouble.
False allegations are becoming a pandemic on University campuses, and Abby Dawson was willing to throw a student she didn’t like under the bus by lying to the authorities. This is enough to spark outrage, and students are not going to tolerate staff abuse for long.
We’re tired, and we’re ready to put a stop to this madness. Cross your fingers and hope that KSU does the right thing, because if they don’t, then Zen Men will stage a demonstration to pressure KSU administration into acting with basic human decency. Speaking for myself, I would draw great pleasure from scrapping with Scrappy once more if it meant helping students hold corrupt faculty members accountable.
Universities abuse their students too freely, and it’s time we fought back. KSU students, please remember to use your smartphones to record rude or otherwise corrupted staff to hold them accountable for bad behavior. Your camera is your best friend in the face of twisted government-funded organizations. Keep it ready at all times, because you do not know when nastiness will occur.
Also, Kevin, if you are reading this, exercise your FERPA rights by filing an open records request with the KSU Division of Legal Affairs. Ask for every email mentioning your name, particularly by Dean Michael Sansivero, the Behavioral Response Team, and all people involved in this investigation. You might not get some of the emails until the investigation concludes, but you can use those emails against KSU if they disrespect you further.
My best goes out to Kevin, and we at Zen Men will follow this investigation with great interest. Let’s see if KSU’s moral compass stays well-adjusted under pressure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65ZUl4bIBD8
This post originally appeared on ZenMen.org.
