Cooley Student Keepin' It Classy! Another Sexist, Hateful Email From The Michigan Law School

I receive a lot of abusive emails, and sadly from folks you wouldn't expect to be trolls (that's another story). But these have to be the most absurd ones ever! A purported student from Cooley has sent me a string of nasty, misogynistic, sexually charged emails ever since I began writing about the school. I was on my way to grab some dinner with my lovely husband and my pooch this evening when I received this hate-filled garbage.

For those of you who don't like offensive language, you have been warned!

Here's the the most recent from someone who calls himself/herself  "Deep Throat" and writes:

Subject: (Cooley again) Fuck! 

to: ccrynjohannsen@gmail.com

date Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 10:51 PM

subject: (Cooley again) Fuck!

mailed-by hotmail.com

Didn't I tell you to leave my school alone?  

 I expect this type of shit from [X-scamblogger]. Here's a memo to you: next time you suck his dick, do it really really hard. Maybe that'll get him to finally shut up.

I replied:

Classy!

I'll post this to my blog, and let people know the types of students who attend Cooley.

Thanks!

Best,

Cryn

Did s/he give up? Nope!

Response:

Better yet, Hum the alphabet when your [my emphasis] down there. $100 says the angry fuck can't make it without shooting his wad before you reach M.

I couldn't resist, I had to reply! So, I said to this hateful, sexist, little child:

Thanks! Classy again!

I added:

Also, it's YOU ARE, or you can use the contraction YOU'RE. It's not YOUR, sillypants. Great grammar too! Thanks! 

Did s/he give up. Nope! Wrong again. They replied and said:

Your [my emphasis] not denying it. He must not be bad if you're defending him this much. I think he's married. (Poor lady.) So try not to leave your lipstick on his dick, 'K. 

This poor baby is grammar-confused! So I let her/him know, and said:

Again, it's YOU'RE or YOU ARE, sillypants.

That one failed to get to them! The inbox was shut down, or they blocked me. What a shame, right? They truly need to know the difference between YOUR and YOU ARE, but I failed to educate them again.

You know what this fuming, sexist tirade - filled with poor grammar - was in response to? It was in response to the fact that a law firm, Miller & Canfield, who are representing Cooley in a lawsuit against a NYC law firm and 4 'John Does,' are monitoring my site on a weekly basis. I have written about the fact that Cooley has filed lawsuits for defamation and that they are trying to squelch free speech. So this purported student is apparently livid that I am writing about these things.  So much for civility, right?!?


Here are the pieces that I've written about Cooley:

How it feels to have your work monitored by the law firm, Miller & Canfield (Sept. 2, 2011)

Quick Post: Thomas M Cooley Law School's Attempt to Squelch Freedom of Speech (Aug. 12, 2011)

BREAKING: Kurzon Strauss Files Class Action Lawsuits Against Cooley and NYLS (Aug. 10, 2011)

*UPDATE* OP-Ed: Freedom of Speech Under Attack - Rockstar05's Attorney Files Motion to Quash Thomas M Cooley Law School's Subpoena (Aug. 8, 2011)

Thomas M Cooley Law School Sues NYC Law Firm and 4 'John Does' for Defamation: Seeking Answers and Help from the Hill (July 19, 2011)

BREAKING! Thomas Cooley Law School Fights Back And Sues a Law Firm and Four 'John Does' (July 14, 2011)

Guest Post: Dustin Slaughter, founder of the David & Goliath Project, Writes about the Chilean Student Uprising

Dustin Slaughter (@dustinslaughter) is the founder of the David & Goliath Project. He's been following the Chilean student uprisings closely, and recently wrote a piece called "American Students Should Take a Page from the Chilean Uprising." The suggestion that we as Americans take this as a model is well-stated.


Here's a truncated version of the piece:

“In the United States of America, no one should go broke because they chose to go to college.” – President Barack Obama, State of the Union Address, Jan. 27, 2010

Chilean society has been rocked by over three months of protests, beginning as a student uprising demanding affordable education and culminating in workers, environmentalists, LGBT rights activists, and others demanding reforms ranging from “building electric dams in Patagonia to improving education.”

The unrest began when students started taking to the streets en masse to demand “the elimination of a voucher system that supports private universities and demanding free, higher quality education at public universities.” The student revolt’s de facto leader, as it were, is Camilla Vallejo (@camila_vallejo) who has come to be known as “Commander Camila”. According to The Guardian, Vallejo has the ability to shut down whole sections of Santiago. Her call for better, cheaper education, has galvanized nothing less than a major populist uprising:

“Her press conferences can lead to the sacking of a minister. The street marches she leads shut down sections of the Chilean capital. She has the government on the run, and now even has police protection after receiving death threats.

Yet six months ago, no one had heard of Camila Vallejo, the 23-year-old spearheading an uprising that has shaken not only the presidency of the billionaire businessman Sebastián Piñera, but the entire Chilean political class.”

Read the rest of Dustin's article here.

Camila Vallejo - Photograph by Roberto Candia/AP

Chronicle of Higher Ed: "Education Department Backs Away From Fix to Help Disabled Student Borrowers"

In late February, ProPublica, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Center for Public Integrity revealed that disabled borrowers face a labyrinthine bureaucracy that makes it essentially impossible to discharge their student loans. After this publication, the department promised to clean things up and help disabled and terminally ill borrowers.

Well, guess what? According to a recent article by Sasha Chavkin in the CHE, it turns out they are backing away from this plan. Chavkin writes, "now nearly six months later, the department says it can't and won't do that."

Makes one wonder what the interest groups are doing behind the scenes. Is the department receiving pressure from the lenders and their lobbying firms, and is that why they are backing off? 

It seems senseless and downright cruel that they are unwilling to change this unjust system, especially for the most vulnerable and sick. 

Business as usual under an absolutely tyrannical system, I guess.   

Related Links

"Illness or injury can cause ‘ruinous’ consequences for those with student loan debt," USA Today (June 21, 2011)

"Education Department Bureaucracy Keeps Disabled Borrowers in Debt," ProPublica (Feb. 13, 2011)

Labor Day

I wish all of you a happy Labor Day. Here's to hoping that millions of Americans will be able to get back to work, feel productive once again, and are able to feed themselves and their families. Government is not the problem. Government is the solution. Let's cross our fingers and pray that President Obama will introduce a new WPA.

"[W]e made the best of what we had because despondency, not prosperity, was just around the corner. We were more afraid of that than anything. That's why we played so hard." - Steinbeck, "A Primer on the '30s."

Indentured Educated Women

I often think about gender and how it intersects with being an educated debtor. Many women have written to me, expressing their fears about never being able to have a family or owning a home. The option of domesticity has been stripped from many of us who are indentured educated women. While it was once enormously painful for me to accept that I will never have a child, I have now come to terms with it. (I'd really like to adopt, but that costs money, something I seriously lack!) And for those who have told me to have a child, and that things are always tough, i.e., that it's "never the right time to have a child," I can assure you that it is not appropriate or fair to bring a child into this world. I live with my in-laws. I can't buy my own groceries. How on earth could I justify having a baby? Of course, for those of you who have made the decision to have children, I respect that entirely. However, when it comes to my own personal life, it wouldn't be right. That does not mean I pass judgment on anyone who thinks otherwise. We all make different decisions, especially when it comes to intimate matters such as having a child.

I know I'd make a wonderful mother. Being a teacher and seeing how the children in Korea related to me so well made me realize that. Alas, it is not in the cards. And when I think about those children, my heart gets torn to pieces. I miss them terribly. So . . . perhaps I haven't come to terms with being childless? Perhaps . . .

As for ever owning a home? That is entirely out of the picture, and I don't really give a damned. As long as I can get back into an apartment, I'll be happy as ever.

I have also heard from women who are mothers. They fret about their indebted children. Those stories are heart breaking, too. They only wish the best for their children, and they feel helpless about the crisis. It hits them hard, because it is their child who is suffering from a broken, unjust, corrupted system.

Recently, I did some investigative work, and attended a talk for parents with college bound students. It was hard for me to remain quiet, because the room was filled with anxious parents. At one point, after I mentioned that outstanding student loan debt will hit $1 TRILLION in June of 2012, a father said, "college is a racket."

That father is dead right.

At this point, I don't want my nieces or nephews to go to college, and that is painful for me to state. After all, I was on a track to become an academic. Higher education is near and dear to me. But it's so broken at this point. It's been corporatized, and is now a twisted, absurd reflection of what it once was. I don't want my family members to suffer in the ways that so many of you are suffering. I also don't want their mothers to be tormented by the debt that they will acquire and most likely never be rid of.

Mary Cassatt, "Mother's Goodnight Kiss (1888)"