Your Honor, my name is Catherine Short.

I am Joan and Thrins

mother. Yesterday we were provided with the filing by the defense with s.
iller!Youngs apology and letters of support. I would li"e to #omment
briefly on that.
$irst, I would li"e to point out that iller!Youngs apology says
nothing about her pushing, grabbing, and s#rat#hing Thrin. %ntil iller!
Young ta"es responsibility for everything wrong she did that day, it is hard
to ta"e her apology at fa#e value.
Se#ond, if iller!Young is sin#ere in her apology, why did she
nonetheless let her #olleagues tell this #ourt things she "nows are not
true& ' letter from (ayla artin says that iller!Young was )triggered* by
the loud #hants of the pro!lifers that disrupted a nearby #lassroom. iller!
Young "nows very well that the only #hanting that went on was when she
herself led students in a #hant of )Tear down the sign.* ' letter from
Jennifer organ praised iller!Youngs efforts to #reate produ#tive and
useful dialogue, and a##used the pro!lifers that day of using )sho#"ing and
violent images to shut down dialogue.* iller!Young "nows very well that
she was the one shutting down dialogue+ she was the one brea"ing up
#onversations between students and the pro!life group, she was the one
who refused to engage in rational dis#ourse. ,ther letters submitted by
iller!Young are in the same vein. s. iller!Young often de#ries
stereotyping, but she is perfe#tly willing to let her supporters defend her by
deploying the false stereotype of the loud, threatening, belligerent, anti!
#hoi#e protester, when she "nows very well that is not what she
en#ountered that day, and that, indeed, she was the threatening and
belligerent one.
iller!Young also let her supporters tell the #ourt that her a#tions
are so out of #hara#ter that they must be attributed to her pregnan#y.
'gain, iller!Young "nows better. Shortly after the in#ident, I was
#onta#ted by members of another group, Justi#e for 'll. ' few years ago
they set up a pro!life display at %CS-. iller!Young approa#hed the
display and engaged in the same type of angry, bullying, demeaning
diatribe in that situation as she did here. They sent me photos of iller!
Young at the s#ene. The differen#e was that their signs were very large
and surrounded by a barri#ade. iller!Youngs behavior on ar#h . was
not #aused by her pregnan#y. It was #aused by her being, on#e again,
#onfronted by a very effe#tive presentation of a viewpoint that #hallenged
her own. She was powerless to stop that presentation in the earlier
in#ident. ,n ar#h ., she #ould do something to shut it down, and she did.
$inally, the /uestion of an appropriate senten#e. I was stru#" by how
many letters emphasi0ed iller!Young as the pea#ema"er, open to
dialogue, respe#tful of all viewpoints, et#. The only way I #ould s/uare that
with her behavior on ar#h . was to re#all the saying attributed to Henry
(issinger1 )'#ademi# politi#s are so vi#ious pre#isely be#ause the sta"es
are so small.* These letters, in fa#t all the letters of support, #ome from
people who "now iler!Young only through their a#ademi# wor" with her.
2erhaps iller!Young is an open!minded bridge!builder in that narrow field.
I thin" it would be helpful for her if part of her senten#e in#luded some
#ommunity servi#e that involved rubbing shoulders, not as a tea#her, or
mentor, or leader, but as an e/ual, with what some at %CS- #all
)outsiders,* parti#ularly people who beliefs and values are not 3ust a little
out of step with hers, but entirely different from her own. I thin" it would be
of great benefit to her to be able to wor" on her s"ills of #onfli#t resolution
and dialogue in a #onte4t beyond the s/uabbles of the li"e!minded in the
fa#ulty lounge.
Than" you.
'bout a wee" after the in#ident, iller!Young herself retweeted a
statement by one of her supporters, who said she would stand with iller!
Young /uote, )until the whining little bigot eats her a##usation with a
barbed for".* 5nd /uote. Her attorney told the press that she was
)#onfident that it will be#ome #lear that the events did not unfold as the
anti!#hoi#e demonstrators say they did.*