Students at Stanford University are calling for the dean of inclusivity to be fired after she publicly scolded a Trump-appointed judge who was invited to speak at a recent law school event.
After the university refused to fire Tirien Steinbach, an associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, students wrote a scathing opinion piece in the student newspaper, insisting she has no place as a Stanford dean. The op-ed urged the school to expel “anti-speech zealots”.
US Circuit Court Judge Kyle Duncan was speaking at the March 9 “COVID, Guns and Twitter” event at Stanford Law’s Federalist Society last week when Steinbach stepped in and engaged in what video from the event showed was a six-minute scolding of the judge over his alleged unfavorable opinions on same sex marriage, and trans and reproductive rights.
“Your work caused harm”, Steinbach told Judge Duncan.
Hecklers at the event were particularly angry at Duncan for a 2020 opinion in which he refused to use a transgender sex offender’s preferred pronouns.
In comments to the Washington Free Beacon, the judge described the incident as a “bizarre therapy session from hell”.
Duncan was never given a chance to read his prepared remarks.
Stanford Law School dean Jenny Martinez issued what the students say was an apology that stopped short of reprimanding Steinbach, despite video showing her participating in the heckling of Duncan who had pleaded for an administrator to calm unruly students in the audience.
“If Stanford cares about free speech, it must fire any administrator who actively encourages these unruly actions against it”, the students wrote in the Stanford Review.
The op-ed, titled “Fire Tirien Steinbach”, said she is the most recent example of the advent of “anti-speech zealots” shutting down discourse at US universities.
The piece was written by Stanford students Josiah Joner, Thomas Adamo, and Walker Stewart — who attacked staffers for not addressing what they said was the cause of the debacle — “Stanford Law School’s own Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion”.
“At the center of the debacle was not the group of unruly law students, but Tirien Steinbach”, the students wrote. “Dean Steinbach took the podium with a notebook and prepared remarks, ready to slam Duncan as well”. The students noted that Steinbach had “actively encouraged students to go against Stanford’s free speech policy”.
Of the school’s apology, the students wrote the gesture was “meaningless” unless “concrete actions are taken to rid the administration of anti-speech zealots”.
In regards to the school’s vow take steps to ensure such an incident does not happen again, the students said that “it is unclear what Stanford plans to do to prevent such disruption in the future”.
The solution, the students wrote: “Firing Dean Steinbach is a good start”.
