Harvard Rescinds Acceptance Of Parkland Shooting Survivor After Racial Slurs Come To Light

Guns rights advocate Kyle Kashuv

Kyle Kashuv, a survivor of the Parkland school shooting, has had his acceptance to Harvard University rescinded after several racial comments posted on social media came to light.

Mediaite reports the messages, which featured several uses of the n-word, prompted Kashuv to apologize last month.

“I want to address this with honesty and transparency,” wrote Kashuv regarding his racist remarks, which he noted was “long before" the February 2017 massacre. “We were 16-year-olds making idiotic comments, using callous and inflammatory language in an effort to be as extreme and shocking as possible. I’m embarrassed by it, but I want to be clear that the comments I made are not indicative of who I am or who I’ve become in the years since.”

But in a letter Kashuv shared on Twitter, Harvard informed the student his admission was being withdrawn.

“[The Admissions Committee] takes seriously the qualities of maturity and moral character. After careful consideration, the Committee voted to rescind your admission to Harvard,” wrote Harvard. “We are sorry about the circumstances that have led us to withdraw your admissions, and we wish you success in your future academic endeavors and beyond.”

Kashuv took to Twitter to lament his situation.

1/ THREAD: Harvard rescinded my acceptance.

Three months after being admitted to Harvard Class of 2023, Harvard has decided to rescind my admission over texts and comments made nearly two years ago, months prior to the shooting.

I have some thoughts. Here’s what happened.

— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) June 17, 2019

2/ A few weeks ago, I was made aware of egregious and callous comments classmates and I made privately years ago - when I was 16 years old, months before the shooting - in an attempt to be as extreme and shocking as possible.

I immediately apologized.

Here is my apology: pic.twitter.com/eI38ziiQE8

— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) June 17, 2019

3/ After I issued this apology, speculative articles were written, my peers used the opportunity to attack me, and my life was once again reduced to a headline.

It sent me into one of the darkest spirals of my life.

— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) June 17, 2019

4/ After the story broke, former peers & political opponents began contacting Harvard urging them to rescind me. Harvard then sent this letter stating that Harvard "reserves the right to withdraw an offer of admission" and requested a written explanation within 72 hours. pic.twitter.com/RfEQCvjgDX

— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) June 17, 2019

Kashuv goes on to say he gave up "huge scholarships in order to go to Harvard, and the deadline for accepting other college offers has ended."

He adds he is currently "exploring all options at the moment."

You'll note Kashuv doesn't share the offending comments. He says they occurred "years ago" when he was sixteen.

I'm not sure a teenager suddenly 'evolved' on the issue of racial slurs in two years. Maybe, but, maybe not.

After 17 people were gunned down at his school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida, Kashuv gained a substantial social media following after appearing on several news outlets (CBS News, Fox News) to advocate for civilian gun use and against gun control laws.

He also traveled to the White House to meet with Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.

Conservatives on Twitter are complaining that comments Kashuv made "when he was a kid" (they were two years ago) shouldn't be held against him.

Twitter users posted examples of Kashuv's "callous comments:"

TW: Extreme racist language

Here's some of the racist language 16 y.o. Kyle Kashuv used, resulting in Harvard rescinding his admittance. Colleges take into account a student's entire high school record when making decisions, and using slurs is 100% fair game for consideration. pic.twitter.com/fWssTqHzhl

— Kendally Brown (@kendallybrown) June 17, 2019

The racial slurs in an open Google doc have gotten more attention, but I suspect these texts from Kyle Kashuv may have weighed heavier in Harvard's decision. pic.twitter.com/hu7CYyE1M3

— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) June 17, 2019

David Hogg put his neck on the line and fought for gun control while getting death threats daily...

Kyle Kashuv sat behind a computer and made racist comments online...

Do you really want to know which teenager deserves to go to Harvard and who doesn’t.

— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) June 17, 2019

(h/t JoeMyGod)

Louis C.K. Returns Mocking Parkland School Shooting Students & Transphobic 'Jokes'

Louis CK returns to the comedy stage (image via WikiMedia)

Just when you thought Kevin Spacey’s bizarre YouTube video was the worst re-emergence of the year, Louis C.K. shows up with a ‘hold my beer’ moment.

After multiple allegations of sexual misconduct forced him from the public eye in November 2017 - his FX network series was cancelled and the release of his feature film I Love You Daddy was axed - the comic told the world he was going to chill for bit.

“These stories are true,” he wrote in his apology. “When you have power over another person, asking them to look at your dick isn’t a question. It’s a predicament for them. The power I had over these women is that they admired me. And I wielded that power irresponsibly.”

‘I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want,” Louis C.K. said at the time. “I will now step back and take a long time to listen.”

Well, he’s not listening any longer.

In a new comedy set (which leaked this weekend), the 51-year-old came out swinging at a whole host of targets.

Complaining about young people today, he riffed on folks who use gender neutral pronouns.

“They’re like royalty!” he said. “They tell you what to call them. ‘You should address me as they/them, because I identify as gender-neutral.’ Oh, Ok. You should address me as ‘there’ because I identify as a location. And the location is your mother’s cunt.”

He also trained his ire on the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida where seventeen teens and adults were killed on February 14.

“They testify in front of Congress, these kids? What are they doing?,” says the comic in the leaked video.

“You’re young, you should be crazy, you should be unhinged, not in a suit… you’re not interesting. Because you went to a high school where kids got shot? Why does that mean I have to listen to you? You didn’t got shot, you pushed some fat kid in the way, and now I’ve gotta listen to you talking?”

Imagine thinking the best way to resurrect your career after admitting to sexual misconduct is to mock trans people and Parkland gun violence survivors. pic.twitter.com/SH7wDYe7kA

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) December 31, 2018

Listening to the audio, it’s hard to tell which is worse: Louis C.K. doing transphobic jokes and mocking school shooting survivors or the people laughing uproariously at the routine.

The Twitterverse wasn’t having it:

This hacky, unfunny, shallow routine is just a symptom of how people are afraid to feel empathy. It’s much easier to laugh at our most vulnerable than to look at their pain directly & show them love and concern. Louis CK is all fear and bitterness now. He can’t look inward. https://t.co/aQVG0rk87y

— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) December 31, 2018

Louis CK and Dennis Miller are going to have a new show on FOX called “We Were Funny Once”.

— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) December 31, 2018

Louis CK is a sexual predator who mocks school shooting survivors, delegitimizes trans people, and could not work the rest of his life without ever worrying about money while the women he harassed gain nothing, but please tell me more about how MeToo destroys men’s lives.

— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) December 31, 2018

The thing is, you can still consensually fingerbang folks, do Jell-o shots, and manage not be a transphobic, misogynist hack comic. Louis CK's just an asshole.

— Charles Pulliam-Moore (@CharlesPulliam) December 31, 2018

#LouisCK’s new set apparently has a section attacking #nonbinary people. He thinks it’s wrong to use “they” as a singular pronoun. I, on the other hand, think it’s wrong to sexually assault people.

— Emily C. Heath (@emilycheath) December 31, 2018

There were a few fans who tried to defend Louis C.K. saying this is who he’s always been:

This Louis CK bit would have never made headlines before his scandal. This is in line with the same stuff he did before.

Move along, people. Leave outrage over comedy to the right wing.

— Emma Vigeland (@EmmaVigeland) December 31, 2018

But this Twitter user summed it up best perhaps: “I actually don’t need to hear audio of Louis CK making fun of the Parkland survivors and trans people. It’s about to be a new year. I think I’ll leave Louis CK behind in 2018 and that’s where he can stay forever.”

I actually don’t need to hear audio of Louis CK making fun of the Parkland survivors and trans people. It’s about to be a new year. I think I’ll leave Louis CK behind in 2018 and that’s where he can stay forever.

— [kie.ran] (@danblackroyd) December 31, 2018

What do you think, readers?

Is this just a comedy set? Or should Louis C.K. go back to chilling?

Obama For TIME: "Parkland Students Are Shaking Us Out Of Our Complacency"

Barack Obama penned a moving tribute about the Parkland students for TIME's list of the 100 most influential people of 2018.

“Our history is defined by the youthful push to make America more just, more compassionate, more equal under the law.”

From the TIME essay:

Seared by memories of seeing their friends murdered at a place they believed to be safe, these young leaders don’t intimidate easily. They see the NRA and its allies—whether mealymouthed politicians or mendacious commentators peddling conspiracy theories—as mere shills for those who make money selling weapons of war to whoever can pay. They’re as comfortable speaking truth to power as they are dismissive of platitudes and punditry. And they live to mobilize their peers.

Already, they’ve had some success persuading statehouses and some of the biggest gun retailers to change. Now it gets harder. A Republican Congress remains unmoved. NRA scare tactics still sway much of the country. Progress will be slow and frustrating.

But by bearing witness to carnage, by asking tough questions and demanding real answers, the Parkland students are shaking us out of our complacency. The NRA’s favored candidates are starting to fear they might lose. Law-abiding gun owners are starting to speak out. As these young leaders make common cause with African Americans and Latinos—the disproportionate victims of gun violence—and reach voting age, the possibilities of meaningful change will steadily grow.

Our history is defined by the youthful push to make America more just, more compassionate, more equal under the law. This generation—of Parkland, of Dreamers, of Black Lives Matter—embraces that duty. If they make their elders uncomfortable, that’s how it should be. Our kids now show us what we’ve told them America is all about, even if we haven’t always believed it ourselves: that our future isn’t written for us, but by us.

Parkland Teacher Leaves Loaded Gun In Public Bathroom, Found & Fired By Drunk Homeless Man

Sean Simpson (via screencapture)

Donald Trump's solution to school shootings is to arm teachers in the class room.

Because, what could possibly go wrong?

Other than a gung-ho teacher leaving his gun in a bathroom for a stranger to find...?

The Miami Herald has the details:

Not the most normal sight: a gun left in the bathroom stall. But that’s exactly what went down on Sunday in a men’s room at the Deerfield Beach Pier.

The circumstances of how the Glock 9mm got there are unusual.

According to the Broward Sheriff’s Office, the weapon was left by Sean Simpson. If his name sounds familiar, he’s the teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas who said he’d be willing to arm himself while on duty.

According to the sheriff’s office report, Simpson told deputies he’d left his gun by accident. By the time the chemistry teacher realized his mistake, the Glock was already in the hands of a drunk homeless man who had picked it up and fired. The bullet hit a wall.

Simpson was able to grab the gun away from the vagrant, Joseph Spataro, who was charged with firing a weapon while intoxicated and trespassing. As for the MSD teacher, he was arrested and charged with failing to safely store a firearm, a second-degree misdemeanor.

Simpson got slapped with a second degree misdemeanor for failing to properly store a firearm.

The Broward School Board, which includes Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, unanimously rejected the state's new program to arm school staff this week. The funds will be used for more resource officers instead.

Parkland High School Shooting Activists Cover TIME Magazine "ENOUGH."

Photograph by Peter Hapak for TIME

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students Jaclyn Corin, Alex Wind, Emma Gonzalez, Cameron Kasky and David Hogg cover the latest issue of TIME Magazine standing behind the headline, "ENOUGH."

The article, titled "The School Shooting Generation Has Had Enough," chronicles how the students' lives have changed since the February 14 shooting that killed 17 classmates and faculty members.

An excerpt from TIME:

How a movement catches fire is always a mystery, but the Parkland kids seem matched for this moment. They’re young enough to be victimized by a school shooting, but old enough to shape the aftermath. Like many teenagers, they’re at a peculiar stage in their lives where they feel at once vulnerable and invincible, highly social yet impervious to the etiquette expected from adults. Their bombastic style mirrors President Trump’s: they call their enemies names and hurl sick burns at politicians and lobbyists as if they’re shouting across the locker room.

[snip]

They envision a youth political movement that will address many of the other issues affecting the youngest Americans. Hogg says he would like to have a youth demonstration every year on March 24, harnessing the power of teenage anger to demand action on everything from campaign-finance reform to net neutrality to climate change. But even if none of this works—even if they never pass comprehensive gun reform, and net neutrality fails, and Citizens United endures, and climate-change legislation stalls—today’s teenage rebels will become tomorrow’s establishment leaders, informed by the experience that may already be shaping the gun debate.

And that, says Hogg, is the bottom line for politicians who side with the NRA. “You’re gonna be smeared in the textbooks. Your legacy is gone,” he says. “If you don’t stand up with us now, you’ll be standing against us.”

TIME's new cover: The school shooting generation has had enough https://t.co/4YI173gqTx pic.twitter.com/7yFEXuVjyb

— TIME (@TIME) March 22, 2018

Orlando: Pulse Nightclub Survivors Greet Parkland Shooting Survivors

After spending several days in Tallahassee, Florida, lobbying state lawmakers to take steps that could stop violent gun massacres in the future, students who survived the gun massacre at a Parkland high school two weeks ago made a stop in Orlando to meet with survivors of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in 2016.

Standing together, the survivors read the names of the 49 Pulse shooting victims and place a rose in a wire fence in tribute. They then added the names of the 17 killed in the Parkland shooting.

Neema Bahrami, who was an event manager at Pulse at the time of the attack, told the press, “We’re all family.”

Watch the local news report below.

Joined Pulse survivors to welcome students and families from Stoneman Douglas to the Pulse site. We share their grief and support their efforts to ensure no other community has to experience what Orlando and Parkland have. pic.twitter.com/JsoouUup4A

— Mayor Buddy Dyer (@orlandomayor) February 28, 2018

Survivors of Pulse, Parkland shootings meet: "We're all family" https://t.co/PKTTH4LDWj pic.twitter.com/2VaMS7l5oB

— The Hill (@thehill) March 1, 2018

Florida: Officer At Parkland Shooting Stood Outside Instead Of Confronting Shooter

Nikolas Cruz

The NRA and Donald Trump have been touting that a trained professional with a gun could have stopped Nikolas Cruz from killing 17 people at the tragic gun massacre at a Parkland, Florida, high school last week.

Except - there was a trained professional with a gun onsite at the shooting.

The good guy with a gun never went in.

From The Wall Street Journal:

The sheriff’s deputy who was assigned to the Florida school where a gunman killed 17 people last week has left the force after evidence showed he stood outside the building where the shooting occurred rather than going in, Sheriff Scott Israel said Thursday.

“He never went in,” Sheriff Israel said, describing video footage of the scene he had watched.

Asked what school resource officer Scott Peterson should have done, the sheriff said he should have gone into the building, “addressed the killer, killed the killer.”

Mr. Peterson resigned after Sheriff Israel suspended him without pay pending an internal investigation, the sheriff said, speaking at a news conference.

Parkland Shooting Survivor: Society Will Shrug This Off But "March For Hours" Over A Rainbow Wedding Cake

Speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper today, Parkland student Cameron Kasky called out Americans who offer little more than "thoughts and prayers" when shooting tragedies happen, but will "march for hours if they have to bake a rainbow wedding cake."

“This is the time to talk about guns. There’s much more that can be done, much more that needs to be done and much more that people like Sen Marco Rubio and Governor Rick Scott are not doing. It’s scary to think these are the people who are making our laws when our community just took 17 bullets to the heart.

“It feels like the only people who don’t care are the people making the laws. There is a segment of this society that will shrug this off and send their thoughts and prayers but march for hours if they have to bake a rainbow wedding cake.”

Kasky also called the response by Republican lawmakers a "facade" acted out via talking points from the National Rifle Association.

Watch Kasky below.

(h/t JoeMyGod)