Upperclassman Destroys Argument, First DC of the Year

An upperclassman student has earned the school’s first major discipline case of the year after bullying a student in a single significant instant. The incident happened during class, where the upperclassman and the other student, a prep, had engaged in a heated debate. The prep had just finished explaining their full argument when the upperclassman refuted the prep’s principle premise in one swift blow. After class, the prep felt that the upperclassman had attacked their intellectual property, and reported the incident to the administration. Damage to property, not excluding intellectual property, exists under the definition of Bullying in the E Book (refer to page 20), and is thus considered a major offense.

The upperclassman, who will remain anonymous, did not intend to inflict damage to the student’s idea.  “I didn’t mean anything bad about it - there were just some holes in their reasoning and I poked through them. Maybe if [the prep] had done the reading this wouldn’t have happened,” the upperclassman said in a statement.

Students present in the class were asked to withhold from commenting on the case, but some couldn’t refrain. “I was shocked,” one upper said. “It was literally the most savage thing I’ve seen a student do during my time at Exeter.” Classmates did not intervene (nor did the teacher), contributing to a bystander effect. When asked if this could’ve been prevented, the upper replied that the situation could’ve been resolved had there not been seven minutes of silence following the upperclassman’s comment.

The deans could not be reached for a comment, however it is possible that they are unable to comment due to the nature of the case and (poorly defined) federal laws protecting intellectual property.

When asked whether damage to intellectual property should constitute a major offense, the upperclassman replied that “it normally should, but there was nothing intellectual about what they said.”