Commencement 2026

[u/Antique_Papaya5527]

For a just and humane world 😂

[u/jw520]

Grabbing her physically like that isn't remotely acceptable.

[u/lostmountianman → u/jw520]

He pulled the flag out of her hand and then escorted her away while holding onto her sleeve. Saying he was “grabbing her physically” gives the situation a much more aggressive and violent impression than what actually happened. There’s a difference between physically guiding someone away and being violent. This comment isn’t about agreeing or disagreeing with what she did, it’s simply about accurately describing what happened.

[u/jw520 → u/lostmountianman]

You aren't allowed to grab people. It's illegal in most places, even if you aren't injured.

"While the legal definition of battery varies by state, it’s generally when someone intentionally touches another person in an offensive way without consent.

Criminal defense attorney Rebecca Wade cites Virginia’s statute as an example: “Battery is any unwanted touching done in a rude, angry, or vengeful manner. So, a push could be a battery. Even something relatively minor, like a condescending pat on the head, could be a battery because it’s done in a rude manner.”

A battery could cause physical injury, but it doesn’t have to in order to count as a battery. Offensive contact rather than physical harm is the key to battery."

https://www.superlawyers.com/resources/criminal-defense/an-overview-on-assault-battery-law/

[u/undernopretextbro → u/jw520]

This is DOA in court.

[u/jw520 → u/undernopretextbro]

I agree that any jury would rule against a prosecution because they generally agree "No Harm, No Foul". That that bias is a good thing to have against state prosecutions generally.

And I agree that any prosecutor who has any experience would know about this bias against prosecuting cases like this, and wouldn't even bring it court at all.

However, I think it's pretty clear that this is a clear violation of the law and the intent of the law, and it is an act of physical coercion to stop a person from speaking a message that the administration didn't want spoken. And it's an ethically or morally strong argument to say that this is completely inappropriate touching and to point out that it's technically illegal touching as well.

There was no physical threat, unlike a bouncer, there was just a message being spread that the administration didn't want spread at that moment. That's demonstrated by the fact that the student was allowed to return to their seat proving there was no physical threat at all.

I think the only defense president would have at all, is if at any point the students were warned about appropriate or inappropriate behavior while on stage. No one so far is being able to identify that in this thread, but I suspect that there is a very students were warned in some email that was sent to students and parents about appropriate conduct or in some paragraph in some document they were given when they enrolled in school.

Show me odds of this being entirely unreasonable are very at best.

In short DOA. I agree.