Standing up in class might get you sent to the dean’s office, especially if you’re 6 feet 5 inches tall. At least, that’s what happened to Peter Maxwell of Lynn University.
Writing in The College Fix, Maxwell tells of how he questioned a peer during class about his presentation claiming the terrorist attack in Benghazi was a “pseudo-event” manufactured by Fox News.
The questioning didn’t go so well for Maxwell’s classmate, whose thesis was torn apart by a few simple questions. But when Maxwell suggested a more plausible cause for the Benghazi attack – think radical Islam — that’s when the professor said “enough!”
Maxwell continues:
Having looked up my professor’s name in Florida’s election database, I knew her registration as a Democrat and history of political donations to liberal causes. So I stood up to answer her – the desks are attached to the chairs, so I couldn’t swivel around to face her – and quipped, “We all know what side of the political spectrum you side with.”
Ten days later I got an email from the dean of students asking me to make an appointment right away.
The next day, still in the dark as to why I had been called in, the dean asked me how I ended up in his office. I shrugged.
Because I stood up at my desk to answer her in class, the professor perceived me as “intimidating and threatening,” the dean said.
I literally laughed at his statement. What a ridiculous accusation! I told the dean. My professor is using my height to penalize me for asking pointed questions?
“We have to be careful because of the atmospheres on college campuses across the country,” the dean replied.
In the end, it was a lesson for Maxwell: Benghazi taught him that standing up in class — especially if you’re tall — is a microaggression at Lynn University.