Tiptoe through the minefield

Everyone in the country has now heard of The Evergreen State College, a source of embarrassment for our community. Your front page article on Sunday regarding events there disappointed me with its soft-soaping of that fiasco. I understand the “Give Peace a Chance this school year” thing, but really!

First off, every Washingtonian should be furious about the expense of $500,000 of our tax dollars to make this go away. I admire the Weinsteins for moving on, but we are fortunate they did not pursue their suit, as a jury may have awarded them more than the nominal $3.85 million they sought. They were absolutely innocent professionally and constitutionally.

Secondly, you have glossed over the gross behavior of faculty members and others who fomented these events. Your concept of tolerance must be selective.

Finally, you failed to address the culpability of TESC administrators. While they may not have been able to prevent the initial events, they disregarded the warning signs preceding them, and encouraged their persistence over several days. Recall, too, that all this folderol was conveniently perpetrated during final exams.

Different sets of visitors this summer asked us to take them to the TESC entrance way sign so they could get their pictures taken in front of it to post as a joke on social media. That’s not the kind of “education” our community needs.

This story was originally published October 13, 2017 at 6:01 PM with the headline "Tiptoe through the minefield."