After turning in a poem with an oral disclaimer that it was an experimental piece and to “not take it seriously,” Yao Fa Lu, a De Anza College student, was escorted to the Admissions and Records Office to discuss what prompted him to write the poem.
The poem said the VirginiaTech shootings were blown out of proportion by the U.S. media. Lu also wrote about personal ailments such as anorexia and Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome from fighting an unjust war. Dean of Counseling Howard Irvin, a counselor and a campus security guard escorted Lu.
“The counselor who spoke to me kept shaking her head, and at one point said ‘I blame Hip-Hop for this’,” said Lu.
Irvin said that pulling students out of class does not happen often. “Since I’ve been here, it hasn’t been a regular occurrence,” he said. “We don’t just go to classrooms and take students out because we do not prohibit students from learning. A student has a right to learn and pursue their education. We will not do anything unless there are extenuating circumstances.”
After turning in the poem, Lu is required to include a written disclaimer and a letter of intent everytime he submits a poem to his instructor, Rain Jordan.
Jordan said she was not able to speak about Lu’s situation due to confidentiality issues. But said that if someone was having a heart attack you would help them.
“I feel that one of the great things about De Anza is freedom of speech, and I think this impinges on that right,” he said.
Lu placed third in the annual “Red Wheelbarrow” poetry competition last spring for his piece about cocaine use and other social problems, for which he also won a cash prize.
A student in Lu’s class who wishes to remain anonymous said, “What I can tell you about Yao Fa Lu is that he’s a student who has been through a lot, and his work is edgier than most people’s, but if you understand where he’s coming from and what he’s been through, you’ll understand his writing. Let me give you some context. He grew up in Burma, which, if you know anything about Burma, is one of the harshest environments you can come from. On top of that he served in the army in Singapore, for which the traumatic drills training is infamous.”
“Let’s say you were a teacher and you received some of this offensive material and you’re aware of some of the things that happened at Virginia Tech and some other schools,” said Irvin. “What you would want to do is have someone else look at it.”
Irvin said it is policy to make contact with a student based on an instructor’s feelings or concerns. He said campus security is also made aware.
“It’s a protective measure, and we try not to be imposing,” said Irvin. The security officer who escorted Lu, would have taken action if Lu was considered to be a hostile element, said Irvin.
Lu said his teacher singles him out on a regular basis.
“She told me that if I whisper to my friends during class once more without being called on, or even utter a laugh, she’ll drop me from her course without discussion. Others are not treated the same way, even though they are being far more disruptive than me,” he said.
“If [the instructor] was really concerned about my well-being, I expect that she would come and talk to me first, rather than giving my personal poem to somebody outside of class, which I never would have anticipated, and then having me pulled out of class without so much as saying a word to me,” he said.
