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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT · FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2022 · VOL. CXLV, NO. 9 · yaledailynews.com · @yaledailynews
Students and alumni sue Yale Five New Plaintiffs cite discrimination over mental illnesses BY ANIKA SETH AND SARAH COOK STAFF REPORTERS Yale has failed to appropriately accommodate and support students with mental illnesses, a lawsuit filed Wednesday morning alleges.
The 41-page suit — which was brought forth on Nov. 30 by the mental health advocacy group Elis for Rachael as well as two current Yale undergraduates — accuses the University of discriminating against students who face mental health challenges. Specifically, the suit alleges that students with mental illnesses, especially those who choose to withdraw, are held to harsher standards than those without. Plaintiffs also say that students with mental illnesses who hail from “less privileged backgrounds” — including students of color, students from
poor families or rural areas and international students — are especially harmed by these discrepant protocols. “Yale has ignored student demands for change for decades, doing only the bare minimum to accommodate students with mental health needs,” Alicia Abramson ’24, one of the student plaintiffs, wrote to the News. “Yale has refused to make substantive changes to policies that discriminate against students with mental health disabilities despite our federally SEE LAWSUIT PAGE 5
Grad students head to the polls What would their union look like? BY MEGAN VAZ AND MIRANDA WOLLEN STAFF REPORTERS On Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, thousands of Yale’s graduate and professional students will head to the polls to decide whether to form a union recognized by the University. Approving the measure would open up a host of possibilities for what this union might look like and how it would function on campus. Depending on the results of the upcoming election, the University may begin negotiations with organizers at Local 33 — the currently unrecognized graduate union — to create a legally binding contract called a collective bargaining agreement. This would outline labor terms and may include new working benefits for all graduate students and professional students employed in union-eligible positions on campus. Local 33 organizer Micah English GRD ’26 told the News she worked a union job before coming to Yale, where the difference in pay, healthcare access and agency over her working conditions was palpable. “To be a worker anywhere, but especially at an institution with the resources Yale has, and to not have basic protections to make you feel SEE UNION PAGE 5
On Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, thousands of Yale’s grad and professional students will vote / Abraham Payne , Contributing Photographer
BY KAYLA YUP STAFF REPORTER
The lanternfly incident On Oct. 22, Gordon Lawshe called the cops on a “real small woman” who was wearing a “hood,” according to a bodycam recording published by CNN. “There’s a little Black woman, walking, spraying stuff on the sidewalks and trees on Elizabeth and Florence,” Lawshe said in the bodycam recording. “I don’t know what the hell she’s doing, scares me though.” The “woman” was in fact nine-year-old Bobbi, under 5-feet tall, who was spraying a mixture meant to help exterminate spotted lanternflies. The hood of her hoodie was not on her head, and she was Lawshe’s neighbor of almost eight years from just across the street. Bobbi made this spray herself — it consisted of water, apple cider vinegar and dishwasher soap. She discovered this recipe and how it
BY NATHANIEL ROSENBERG, YASH ROY AND SOPHIE SONNENFELD STAFF REPORTERS On Monday, five New Haven Police officers were arrested for reckless endangerment in the second degree and cruelty to person — both misdemeanors — for their actions that left Randy Cox paralyzed while being arrested on June 19. The reckless endangerment charge comes with a prison time of up to six months while cruelty to person has a maximum one-year prison sentence. New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker announced at a Monday press conference with NHPD Chief Karl Jacobson and the city’s Corporation Counsel Patricia King that all five officers had turned themselves over to state police in Westport that morning. The announcement was not without criticism. At a press conference outside New Haven City Hall on Tuesday, Cox’s lawyers and family members castigated the leniency of the charges brought against the officers responsible for his paralyzation and questioned Elicker’s commitment to helping Cox’s case in light of recent legal filings by the city. “They got a misdemeanor slap on the wrist where they will probably see little to no jail time,” Cox’s lawyer Ben Crump, a nationally renowned civil rights attorney said. “And Randy Cox has a life sentence. How’s that fair?” Cox’s attorneys asserted that if a private citizen had paralyzed Cox in the manner that police did, they would be charged with a felony. They specified that assault with a motor vehicle was a charge they would like to have seen filed.
Ho, Branch speak at Buckley Boycotting federal judges say Law School climate "improved" BY INES CHOMNALEZ STAFF REPORTER
appropriate to call the police on my sister.” Monique Joseph, Bobbi’s mother, also spoke at this meeting, revealing that her daughter had been afraid to leave their house immediately after this happened. “[Lawshe] did not want to become involved in a confrontation, so he called the Caldwell police to look into the matter,” Gregory Mascera, Lawshe’s attorney, wrote to CNN in an email. “Mr. Lawshe did not call 911 but called the police non-emergency dispatch line. Mr. Lawshe had no reason to believe that he would be putting anyone in harm’s way by calling the police.” The bodycam footage continued: after the responding officer talked to Joseph, he
Federal judges leading a boycott against Yale Law School will soon arrive on campus at the invitation of Yale’s primary conservative student organization. The Nov. 30 discussion, titled “Is Free Speech Dead on Campuses?”, will be hosted by the William F. Buckley Jr. Program in William L. Harkness Hall. The speakers, Judges James C. Ho and Elizabeth Branch, announced their decision to bar future graduates of Law School from their clerkships over concerns about the institution’s culture around free speech in September. The event will be moderated by law professor Akhil Amar ’80 LAW ’84. The boycott’s ties to free speech debates make the Buckley Program a “natural” fit for such an event, said Buckley Program founder and executive director Lauren Noble ’11. “Yale’s free speech environment has been deteriorating for some time,” Noble wrote to the News. “We are glad that these judges have brought this problem to national attention and look forward to working with them to make Yale a welcome home for a wide range of perspectives.”
SEE LAB TOUR PAGE 4
SEE BOYCOTT PAGE 4
Nine-year-old Bobbi Wilson of Caldwell, New Jersey was welcomed to Yale for a tour / Courtesy of Jeoma Opara could be used to combat the dangers posed by spotted lanternflies on TikTok. The spotted lanternfly is an invasive planthopper native to Asia. It can cause extensive damage by feeding on the sap found in its host plants, including trees and other plants. New Jersey’s “Stomp it Out!” campaign urges people to extinguish and report the lanternfly when there is a sighting because of the damage the species can cause to crops. “She was not only doing something amazing for our environment, she was doing something that made her feel like a hero,” Bobbi’s 13-yearold sister Hayden Wilson said at a Nov. 1 Borough of Caldwell Council Meeting. “Our neighbor across the street saw my sister spraying the trees with the solution and didn’t know what she was doing. Instead, he decided it would be
CROSS CAMPUS
INSIDE THE NEWS
THIS DAY IN YALE HISTORY, 1986.
Is the pandemic over? Yale experts weigh in
Cambridge Police arrest two Yale students for breaking into a church near Harvard Yard, St. Paul's Catholic Church, during the weekend of the Harvard-Yale game.
City sidesteps responsibility
SEE COX PAGE 4
Bobbi Wilson tours Yale labs Nine-year-old Bobbi Wilson of Caldwell, New Jersey was welcomed to Yale for a “Black girl led Science Tour” after a viral incident where her neighbor called the cops on her while she was protecting trees from lanternflies. The little girl had been spraying a formula to help exterminate spotted lanternflies — an invasive species in New Jersey — when her neighbor reported her to the police, who then stopped and questioned her. In response to this incident, Ijeoma Opara, Yale School of Public Health assistant professor, designed a tour to introduce Bobbi to Black female scientists and reward her for her efforts to save the environment. “I didn’t want this traumatic experience due to racism to harm Bobbi,” Opara said. “I didn’t want it to prevent her from continuing to explore her environment and from continuing to pursue a career in science.”
Haven cops charged
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PAGE 3 EDITORIAL PAGE 6 NEWS PAGE 13 BULLETIN PAGE 14 SPORTS PAGE B1 WKND
EVENT Cartoonist Alison Bechdel, who
authored the graphic novel Fun Home, visits Yale to speak. PAGE 8 NEWS
LAW SCHOOL The Bar Association considers removing LSAT requirement from admissions. PAGE 11 NEWS