Student Protesters Who Blocked Field at Harvard Yale Football Game Get Records Expunged
“Many of these people are seniors and juniors looking for spots in graduate school and jobs”
So these protesters won’t get any real punishment and their records will be clean? Must be nice.
The College Fix reports:
Ivy League privilege: Climate change protesters get records expunged for shutting down football game
Going to an Ivy League school is great. Not only are you practically guaranteed a lucrative job and enriching professional networks after graduation, but you’re above the law even while still enrolled.
It’s not even clear that the dozens of Harvard and Yale students and alumni arrested for shutting down the Harvard-Yale football game – in order to demand divestment from fossil fuels – fulfilled their court-ordered five hours of community service.
The Harvard Crimson makes no mention of whether Judge Phillip Scarpellino required the 10 Harvard students and alumni to produce documentation that they served the conditions under which their charges would be dropped. All the protesters agreed to Scarpellino’s terms at their Dec. 6 hearing.
They showed up in his New Haven court Monday, where “their case was annulled, legally erasing any record of their arrest (the Yale Daily News has no coverage of Monday’s hearing, so it’s unclear what happened to the Yale charges):
[Lawyer Hugh] Keefe represented the Harvard students arrested during the divestment protest alongside attorney Tara Knight. In an interview Monday, Keefe said he received the outcome he had originally hoped for.
“The disposition I was hoping for would be one where there was no record of any kind,” he said. “I was successful in doing that.” …
“Many of these people are seniors and juniors looking for spots in graduate school and jobs,” Keefe said. “It’s very important that we keep their records clean for that purpose.”
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Comments
When I was in school, it was very important to me that I kept my record clean — so I behaved and was very circumspect in any illegal conduct. Maybe these “protesters” could have taken the same course; their need to have clean records is not a reason to expunge.
Since we don’t know who they are, the only way to be safe from hiring them is to not hire anyone from Harvard.
Great point! I will dictate a letter to Harvard Placement Office informing them that because these convictions are being expunged and concealed from prospective employers, I will refuse to interview any Harvard grads in this upcoming recruitment cycle as the only way to ensure that I do not allow one of these criminals into my organization.
I knew folks who had to report their undergraduate arrests for “streaking” and related convictions on their bar applications. The committee called lots of them in for interviews. I promise you that the University didn’t do anything to expunge their arrest records.