Don’t Think!* (Crane Technique Edition)

[*the occasional feature formerly known as Celebrate Diversity (Just Watch What You Think), with credit due to Dr. Marc Miyake]

Well, I guess this incident gives new meaning to the phrase “knee-jerk reaction”.

Fort Lewis College [Durango, CO] student Mark O’Donnell said he was showing people his College Republicans sweat shirt, which said “Work for us now … or work for us later,” when Maria Spero kicked him in the leg at an off-campus restaurant.

Spero then said “she should have kicked me harder and higher,” said O’Donnell. “To physically take that out on someone because you disagree with them, that is completely wrong.”

Spero, a visiting instructor of modern languages, apologized to O’Donnell in a letter dated Oct. 29.

“I acted entirely inappropriately by kicking you, giving vent to a thoughtless knee-jerk political reaction that should never have happened,” she wrote. “Before the incident, I did not know you and that you are a Fort Lewis student.”

The college also formally apologized, said David Eppich, assistant to the school’s president.

O’Donnell said the apology wasn’t enough and he plans to file a complaint with the college.

Had it been a student wearing a College Democrats t-shirt who was kicked, the media would’ve been all over it through Election Day. Frankly, I’m surprised that O’Donnell didn’t press assault charges against Spero. If anybody kicked me for no reason, you can bet I would –while mustering all the strength within me to refrain from kicking more than just a leg.

(link via Joanne Jacobs)

Filed under Education |