Yale Considers Workplace Safety Push

Ours is one of the most violent nations in the Western world - domestic violence, workplace violence - researchers' unspeakable violence against defenseless animals, violent crimes and especially - war making which leads to millions of lives lost or damaged. If we are not actively promoting PEACE IN ALL FRONTS of our national life and working hard to eradicate the injustices and inequities in our society we are actually allowing all that violence to persist and fester.

As a poet puts it:

As a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree,

So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.

The murdered is not unaccountable for his own murder,

And the robbed is not blameless in being robbed.

The righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked,

And the white-handed is not clean in the doings of the felon.

Yea, the guilty is oftentimes the victim of the injured,

And still more often the condemned is the burden-bearer for the guiltless and unblamed.

You cannot separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked;

For they stand together before the face of the sun even as the black thread and the white are woven together.

And when the black thread breaks, the weaver shall look into the whole cloth, and he shall examine the loom also.

Kahlil Gibran

The Prophet, On Crime and Punishment

Diaz-Sprague of OH 10:12PM October 04, 2009

The minimum for workplace safety and health would be to have a cause of action that protects everyone in the workplace, not just politically protected classes. Professor David Yamada's Healthy Workplace Legislation, being considered in several states, acts as a preventative for any kind of emotional abuse, bullying, harassment and verbal violence in the workplace. With it on the books, any kind of questionable interactional behavioral abuse or incivility would at least have an avenue for reporting to HR. One of the characteristics of bullies/sociopaths is an inclination to want to control others. See that Healthy Workplace, Anti-Bullying legislation is passed in your state. We need status-blind protections for everyone in the workplace. Laney College in Oakland, CA was the first in California to adopt such a policy campus-wide. But every workplace should have such a policy and legislation to back it up.

Charles Page of CA 3:13PM October 01, 2009

Look at the words of the Yale Presdient Richard Levin, "this could have occurred at any university, campus...it speaks more of the dark side of the human soul rather than campus security." This was made immediately after Annie's body was found. Why was he so eager to come to that breathtaking conclusion? I am willing to give him benefit of the doubt in such a emotionally charged atmosphere. However, as soon as Clark was caught, he stood on the steps on Yale with a union woman called Laura Smith banging the drum against violence on women in the work place. Did those two supposedly highly intelligent and qualified people understand what pre-trial publicity and prejudice is? Raymond Clark is a lab assistant at Yale where Annie did her reserach. Levin and Smith were pointing their fingers straight at Clark. Clever, isn't it? Clark's lawyers would have a field day with this and Annie might not get justice because of all this stupidity. The New Haven Police said exactly the same thing after Clark was arrested: work place violence. I don't know if I am the only one who find this terminology offensive and insensitive. As I said, this is no ordinary workplace violence and also it robs Annie of her persoanl tragedy with the "administrative" label slapped on her tragedy. I suggest that is is racist, the embarrassment of a doctoral Vietnamese girl killed by a trailer trash white at Yale. So they tried to make it impersonal, bureaucartic. I heard that a former Yale employee had been caught on Yale campus armed with offensive objects on the same week as Annie's murder and that was given partially as a reason for this hoo-ha about a big federal injection of funding for security purpose. Even taking that into account, the disrespect to Annie remains. Her death should not be hijacked by the authorities at this particular time when the emotions are still raw and her family in deep grief. In the long term, of course, the ideas espoused here should be looked into and should be done independent of the memory of Annie Le.

Helen Li from England 12:38PM October 01, 2009

Firstly, Yale must re-negotiate employment conditions with the union. The issue of nepotism should be looked into. Was Clark qualified for the job and his post came about with open competitive practice? An unqualified person would have a even deeper sense of inferiority and insecurity than a mature, qualified one. The employing of entire family in the same location is an issue, giving Clark a false sense of proprietorial stance and encouraged his bullying behavior. A panel to address grievances on both sides must be established. I have read since Annie's tragedy of violent resentment of lab workers towards Research Students. I do not doubt that there could be high-handedness or even rudeness on both sides. Other reserach students had mentioned Clark's "officiousness," that should be addressed long before this tragedy. Finally, I have issue with Yale banging the drums of "need for action for campus safety and violence against women in the workplace" even before Annie was laid to rest. Annie's death is not any old "workplace violence," is it? It is a highly unusual and barbaric slaying of a 90 pound, 4 feet 11 inches young woman. To hijick Annie's death with such indecent haste smacks of Yale protecting its own reputation in the midst a highly promising Vietnamese young girl by a white low class boy. Yale is going to get huge federal funding for this. I bet my bottom dollar that none of the policies that partially led to Annie's death: a violent, unqualified bully who was almost impossible to sack because he was a union member and whose bullying attitude was aided and abetted by the presence of his own family in the lab would not be touched. So the tragedy will recur in some form or another. Unless Yale own up to it failure towards Annie and look at those employment and grievance policies, it is mrerely window-dressing for its own benefit, not Annie's

Helen Li 10:39AM October 01, 2009