UK Student Faces ‘Safe Space Complaint’ For Raising Her Arms During Debate
A student at the University of Edinburgh faced sanctions for violating one of the university’s “safe space” policies by raising her arms at a meeting.
Edinburgh’s newly adopted Student Council Safe Space Policy requires that students “[refrain] from hand gestures which denote disagreement or in any other way indicating disagreement with a point or points being made” and “[avoid] using gestures which are not generally known or accepted by Council.” On the other hand, “gestures indicating agreement are permissible, if these gestures are generally understood and not used in an intimidating manner.”
22-year-old Imogen Wilson fell victim to that policy during a student council meeting debating a proposal to boycott and divest from Israel. After an opposing speaker accused her of ignoring disabled students, Wilson raised her arms in an “instinctive” show of frustration.
That led to attempt to kick Wilson out of the meeting.
There has been a safe space complaint against @eusavpaa for inappropriate hand gestures. #eduni
— Student Newspaper (@TheStudentPaper) March 31, 2016
The room is now voting to decide whether @eusavpaa should be allowed to stay in the room, as per safe space policy #eduni
— Student Newspaper (@TheStudentPaper) March 31, 2016
18 people have voted to remove @eusavpaa from the room and 33 people have voted against #eduni
— Student Newspaper (@TheStudentPaper) March 31, 2016
Wilson told The Telegraph that she doesn’t have a problem with safe space policies, but opposes using them to stifle debate. “Safe space is essential for us to have a debate where everyone can speak, but it can’t become a tool for the hard left to use when they disagree with people.”
“At that meeting we were discussing BDS, the movement to boycott Israel. I made a long and passionate speech against us subscribing to this, on the basis it encourages anti-Semitism on campus,” she said. “It was only after I made that speech that someone made a safe space complaint. I can’t help but think it was a political move against me.”
[Image via screengrab]
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