Cal State Paddling Incident Not a Matter of Civil Rights

The civil rights movement in this country and around the world has a sanctified tradition. People have sacrificed for it, risked their lives and livelihoods for it, and died for it. Anything that cheapens or smacks of exploiting it is worthy of rebuke.

Let that serve as an introduction to the case of Keary Johns, a 23-year-old student at Cal State Fullerton. Johns has already taken the required step of filing a discrimination claim with the State Board of Control against Julian Foster, his political science professor, and says he will file a civil suit if the board rejects his claim.

The details, which both sides generally agree on, are as follows: Johns was in danger of failing Foster’s course and came to the professor in April to ask about dropping the class. In a fashion that both interpreted as serious but not serious, Foster told Johns he could either receive six whacks with a ruler or receive a failing grade. Foster says he conceived of the paddling as a punishment for Johns’ failure to attend any classes for the course.

Not wanting to jeopardize his graduation with an F, Johns agreed to the whacking and dropped his sweat pants in Foster’s office. Foster swatted Johns’ bare behind once with a ruler. Although originally agreeable to the paddling, Johns was so upset by the first whack that, he says, he began crying, stopped the proceedings and left.

Foster, 67 and Oxford-educated, has said the incident was nothing more than a bluffing give-and-take that has now been blown out of proportion. When Johns later returned to protest further, Foster noted that black fraternities on campus had a reputation for hazing students that was worse than anything he had done to Johns.

Adding it all up, Johns is seeking $1 million. Everyone knows he won’t get it. The question is whether Cal State will pony up anything at all, rather than risk a civil suit.

A former football player at Fullerton, Johns has been quoted as saying: “When he hit me, it stripped me of my manhood. It hurt.”

Let’s explore the manhood question.

Having manhood in this case would have been to say to the professor before the swat: “Even if we both know what’s happening here, I think it’s kind of insulting to ask me to bend over to be spanked. I refuse to do it.”

Having manhood would have been to attend class in the first place.

Having manhood would have meant not asking Foster originally to give him a D instead of an F in a class he hadn’t attended.

And, lastly, having manhood would mean not cheapening the cause of civil rights by invoking it, even by implication, in trying to milk money from a situation which he complied with.

In short, if all it takes for Johns to have his manhood stripped is a swat from a professor’s ruler, he didn’t have much to begin with.

Yes, Prof. Foster had an edge on Johns, in that he held the power of the grade book. Apparently, he violated university decorum with the paddling idea.

And blah, blah, blah.

I asked Ronald Talmo, Johns’ attorney, why this doesn’t qualify as a frivolous lawsuit.

“Fair question,” he replied.

He then explained that Foster was someone who “had incredible power over a student and decided to use that power in an inappropriate method.” Getting an F in the class could have kept Johns from graduating, Talmo said, and the professor knew it and yet insisted on some type of penalty being imposed.

The incident, Talmo said, represented “a gross abuse of power over somebody who was squirming.” Talmo conceded my point that Foster may well have concocted a similar “punishment” for any student in Johns’ circumstance, regardless of race.

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So, where’s the discrimination angle, I asked.

“When Johns goes back to confront him to tell him how miserable he feels, “ Talmo said, “the professor says, ‘I don’t understand why you’re feeling so badly, why you’re taking this so tough, that black fraternities do much worse to each other, like branding each other.’ So, in (Foster’s) eyes, the student was a black student. He wasn’t just a student. He was a black student. There was no reason to say anything about black fraternity members. Indeed, if race was not in his mind, if he was not cognizant of the race of the person he hit, his statement should have been, “ ‘I don’t know why you’re so upset, fraternity members do this all the time.’ ”

Yes, that’s what Foster should have said. And if you want to be a stickler, you could say he shouldn’t have dreamed up the paddling idea, although I like the prankish aspect of it as a way of not letting Johns completely off the hook for his classroom indiscretions.

In the big picture, that’s “shoulda, coulda, woulda” material.

If Keary Johns’ manhood truly is the issue here, he should accept the apology already offered by Foster. Johns should then announce that no professor’s offhand remark or silly idea could undermine who he is as a person.

And if for no other reason, Johns ought to drop the whole thing just so nobody gets the idea that he’s linking his silly, forgettable incident with anyone who fought the real battles over racial equality.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7821.