I know I'm not the only one thinking it, so I'll just come out and say it: What the hell?! Bob Robinson kicked a chair, and you filed a report with the police? Are you insane?
Please tell me that this is just a big joke so that I can maintain my delusion that all Pomona students have at least an iota of common sense. Filing a police report that accuses someone of violence is a big deal… a REALLY BIG deal. And for what? For kicking a chair that “had no possibility of touching” the accusers, according to their own statements? Come on, guys! You're trivializing the horrible experience of workplace violence that many people suffer through.
I think we can all agree that kicking over a chair was a super-not-classy, inappropriate move by Bob Robinson, but I think that the far more inappropriate and not-classy move was for the students involved to use the incident as a means to push their WFJ agenda. You do NOT waste valuable police and school resources when you are “not calling for firing… nor calling for discipline,” but rather, “calling for a democratic process.” That was just ridiculous, inappropriate, and juvenile.
As for President Oxtoby's e-mail, I think it would have been nice if he recognized that chair-kicking is inappropriate, even if it doesn't constitute workplace violence. However, I think we all ought to acknowledge what a pickle he is in. While I'm sure Oxtoby agrees that such actions are never warranted, to “call out” Bob Robinson in a public forum without Mr. Robinson's permission would have constituted a liability that simply wouldn't be worth it to the school. If anything Oxtoby said in his e-mail was in any way incorrect or misleading, it could probably be successfully portrayed as libel, given that none of the multiple college investigations have considered it worthwhile to further pursue the allegations against Mr. Robinson.
While Oxtoby's e-mail wasn't what I wanted it to be, I suspect it was probably wiser and more thought-out than any of us suspect. In the end, I think we are calling out the wrong guy.