Thursday, August 23, 2012

A Matter of Simple Policy

Police are searching today for a group of about 15 young people believed to have punched one passerby and robbed and beaten another in rapid succession on Virginia Commonwealth University's main downtown Richmond campus. [More]
Let's just see what the "violence prevention policy" says we ought to do in such a situation...
VCU will not tolerate conduct or behavior at the University, including but not limited to...
Yep, that kind of stuff is covered, the policy applies to "faculty, staff and students," ah, shoot, there are like nine other documents we need to read first, and three departments empowered to interpret policy (oh, thank Heaven--we can just "direct [our] policy questions to the Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services"), let's see..."Definitions"...there's a team...a committee...oh, good, they're telling us the difference between "threatening" and "violent" behavior so that next time this happens we can pull out the policy manual and verify what's what...oh, so that's the difference between a "student" and an "employee"...plus they helpfully define "workplace/educational setting" and...here we go, "Reporting threats and violence"...wait a sec, I thought this was a prevention policy...ah, here are some "responsibilities": Nope, looks like the University Safety Committee and the Threat Assessment Team can't help as things are going down, nor can the department, faculty, staff, students or police...

Wait, wait, maybe this is it: here's something buried back in that list of what they simply will not tolerate:
Possessing, brandishing, or using a weapon that is not required by the individual’s position while on state premises or engaged in state business...
These are the people who would presume to educate the rest of us?

[Via William T]

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