Monday, October 26, 2015

It's All Academic

An evidence professor at IU Law has apologized after she faked an angry intruder in order to prove that eyewitness testimony is not always trustworthy. People called 911 and hid under desks, and rumor has it at least one student left through the emergency exit. [More]
Pulling stupid stunts like this may partially explain why the Opposite Day "progressive" intellectual leadership doesn't want guns on campus.

2 comments:

Bear said...

"The guy came in and said “Aviva Orenstein!” … slowly approached her … “You are the woman responsible for taking away my children!” She said, “No no, not in here!” and escorted him into the hallway."

I don't know. That sounds fairly reasonable to me. Guy walked in, made an accusation, and was led out by the prof. No weapons, no threats; we aren't talking about disguised cops running into an elementary classroom with a gun threatenin g to kill everyone, as we've seen in some really stupid training exercises.

If that's enough to terrify the would-be lawyers into cowering and dialing 911, I'm not sure how they're going to deal with life in the real world where actual angry people aren't going to allow themselves to be led away... like criminal defendants being told they aren't going to get a plea bargain.

Archer said...

I had a psychology professor who used to do this type of exercise. An "enraged former student" would barge into class and demand a conversation "now". On being told to come back later, the "student" would pull a starter pistol that he'd fire at the professor in a staged fit of rage. The prof, of course, would fall down and the "enraged student" would run. Then the prof would get up and ask the class, "OK, what did you just see?"

He doesn't do this anymore. He stopped as cell phones started becoming more common. Didn't want to risk 911 calls, and I imagine the administrators didn't much care for it, either, seeing as starter pistols are classified under "simulated weaponry" in the school's "gun free" policy.