Thinking Of The Children

Untruths, no matter how much they are "deeply felt" to reflect a "sense of personal truth," remain untrue. https://t.co/HtTEDtI1mR

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) February 25, 2021

The most interesting part of this story, the part that gets lost immediately, is the reason why the dorm and its cafeteria were closed.

The dorm was being used for a summer program for children.  Per state law, as a protection for the children, no adult was allowed in that building who had not been subject to a criminal background check.  That’s neither intrusive nor unusual; I had to wait for one to be completed before I could work as a substitute teacher in a public school over 10 years ago.

So the reason the student was questioned, even gently challenged about being in the cafeteria, had nothing to do with race, and everything to do with state law because the college campus was housing children, not adults (under/over the age of 18 is the distinction here) at the time.  Curiously, that fact seems to have disappeared from all the discussion and analysis and investigation that followed. Like here, for example:

The new @powellnyt story on accusations at Smith College is terrific. https://t.co/x9dRuad1YI pic.twitter.com/624ft31Wne

— Walter Olson 😷 (@walterolson) February 25, 2021

The Big Idea must be served, people be damned! Well, some people....

But any analysis of the matter which doesn’t take into account the primary purpose for questioning why an adult was in the closed cafeteria doesn’t really examine the situation fairly.