A Claremont McKenna College student is urging CMC to join the other 5Cs by promising that disciplinary action taken against high schoolers for participating in gun control walkouts will not affect their admissions chances.
Johann Lim CM ’18 has gathered more than 100 signatures on a petition, but says he has not yet received a response from the administration.
“Supporting the high school student protesters is really the bare [minimum] that CMC can and should do,” he wrote in a message to TSL. “CMC must support freedom of speech even when those who control the school may not necessarily agree with the message.”
Students in Claremont and around the country walked out of class March 14 to protest legislative inaction following the latest mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Some walkouts were in defiance of school administrators who threatened disciplinary consequences.
Four of the 5Cs have pledged on their admissions websites not to let any punishments impact applicants’ chances of admission. However, CMC has not announced a policy on its site.
Instead, the school “would consider any such matter individually,” spokesperson Peter Hong wrote in an email to TSL.
“We’re not exactly sure what [Hong’s statement] amounts to in practical terms but we do know this is not enough,” the petition reads.
Lim said Hong has emailed him twice about his petition, referring him to Amherst College, Princeton University, and the University of Florida as examples of other schools that “have said they will review cases individually.”
However, Princeton’s statement pledged “full consideration in our admissions process” to “students who act on their conscience in peaceful, principled protest.” Amherst noted that “peaceful protest has never been reason for a student to be denied admission” in its statement, and a University of Florida spokesperson told Time Magazine that the school “would not consider participating in such a protest a negative in our admission process.”
Hong told TSL he has no “comment on emails or statements by other colleges.”
Samuel Breslow PO ’18 was a sociology major from New Hampshire. He previously served as TSL’s senior news adviser, news editor, development associate and opinions columnist.
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