A forum entitled “COVID, Guns, and Twitter” was held this week at Stanford Law School by Tirien Steinbach and the Federalist Society, where Trump appointee Kyle Duncan spoke.
The gathering last Thursday, which was meant to be a chance to hear the ideas of one of the nation’s highest-ranking jurists, devolved into a savage slander campaign.
When students at her event participated in the ribbing, the dean of the law school apologized, but she was not reprimanded.
Students at Stanford University want the “woke” inclusiveness dean fired after she was condemned for publicly reprimanding a conservative judge at a recent law school event.
An essay was written by students at the prestigious university criticizing Tirien Steinbach and urging Stanford to exclude “anti-speech extremists.”
As part of its “COVID, Guns, and Twitter” event this week, the Federalist Society at Stanford Law welcomed Trump appointee Kyle Duncan to speak.
The gathering swiftly degenerated into a smear campaign as the DEI dean utilized the opportunity to give the judicial officer a six-minute grilling for his unfavorable opinions on same-sex marriage, trans rights, and reproductive rights.
Students’ demands that any administrator who “actively supports these disruptive acts against the free expression” be removed from their positions were published in the school newspaper.
Law school dean Jenny Martinez can be seen on video joining the crowd in heckling Steinbach as Duncan implored an official to calm the crowd down. Yet, she did not criticize Steinbach in her subsequent apologies to Duncan.
In an editorial headed “Fire Tirien Steinbach,” published in the student publication The Stanford Review, they said that Steinbach was the latest in a long line of “anti-speech fanatics” who were trying to silence students’ voices on campus.
Students Josiah Joner, Thomas Adamo, and Walker Stewart prepared the paper, in which they accuse “Stanford Law School’s own Associate Dean for Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion” of being at the center of the controversy and attack professors for failing to face the issue.
“At the center of the debacle was not the gang of raucous law students,” they said, reflecting on the chaos.
They reported that Dean Steinbach “actively urged students to go outside Stanford’s free speech norms” and recalled that “Dean Steinbach took the podium with a notepad and prepared statements, ready to attack Duncan as well.”
As no “serious attempts are done to rid the administration of anti-speech radicals,” students said the school’s apology was “meaningless.”
In response to Stanford’s assurance that it will take measures to ensure that this does not happen again, the students said it is unclear what the institution intends to do to prevent disruption of this kind in the future.
The student body chimed in with the response, “Firing Dean Steinbach is a great first step.”
Moreover, they said that Steinbach’s actions had tarnished the reputation of Stanford Law School and they recommended that “if these law students are to be prepared for bench and bar, it absolutely should be with a strong appreciation for the basic principle of free speech.”
There is a recording of Steinbach saying, “Your effort has caused harm… and I realize that must be painful to hear.”
“Staff members who should have enforced university regulations failed to do so,” it was stated during the apology, “instead acting in inappropriate ways that are not compatible with the institution’s commitment to free speech.”
The statement did not specify any consequences for the organization, despite mounting calls for the worker to resign.
Without mentioning Steinbach by name, the statement expressed remorse for the disruption of Steinbach’s recent lecture at Stanford Law School. ‘ A report has been made to the community that this event violated our free speech rules.
Please accept our apologies for the poor experience you had here on campus.
Free speech safeguards on campuses around the country were being weakened at the time of the event, and the statement didn’t do much to address the mounting resentment over it beyond issuing an apology.
Judge Duncan was appeased by the university’s public apology and dismissed the case.
In an interview with Rod Dreher published on Substack, Duncan voiced his fear for the future of the country and called the incident an embarrassment.
There is no doubt that this is one of the best law schools in the country. These pupils are the cream of the crop, the cream of the crop, the cream of the crop. This current crop of kids will one day be in charge of the nation and its businesses.
Students were invited to hear a federal judge speak, but they disrupted his speech by shouting at him, demonstrating their ignorance of the first rule of legal argumentation: always reply to logic with logic. When others don’t like what you have to say, they’ll go to great lengths to silence you.
Such students “cannot be members of any bar unless they undergo a significant adjustment in their entire approach to argument and conflict,” as one teacher put it.
He felt bad for all the other youngsters who had gathered to listen to him but didn’t get a chance to speak.
That was a hurtful and specific assault on you. In my mind, it’s easier to justify treating a dog with such disdain than a human person.
He added that the entire ‘sad experience’ was like the ‘therapy session from hell’.
Emails supplied by Interim Associate Dean of Students Jeanne Miro, however, appear to show that Stanford is now recommending students seek aid from the dean after opting not to remove her.
Students have been given the following tweet: “There is a lot to digest about Thursday’s tragedy and its aftermath, but the goal of this email is to provide you resources that you can apply right away to support your safety and mental health.”
The acting dean expressed his or her deepest condolences for the unfortunate circumstances. Feel free to contact any member of the SLS team for assistance or if you simply want to chat about the events of the last week.
The institution’s plans are still unknown.