Mrs. Cantor Comes Clean

I told you last week how Security Chief Martin Grainger testified at my criminal trial last fall how I was banned from the property as the result of an incident in class where I was virtually screaming in the face of an American Sign Language (ASL) translator who had been invited to the class as a guest.

Surely Mr. Grainger knew this was not the reason. The Trespassing Order was issued hours after the "death threat" Don Metz would later testify about. Locks were changed on his classroom doors, and security guards assigned to his class. Why would Grainger claim I the trespassing order was on account of an in-class incident that had taken place two months before?

My theory is that the University knew the "death threat" was a cock-and-bull story, they were trying to avoid relying on it in court. That's why Don Metz admitted to it only after being grilled for about twenty minutes...and why Neil Besner claimed to have never even heard of it! So instead they were claiming I was kicked out on account of a "verbal assault", as Grainger called it.

This peculiar strategy was about to backfire on them, because by introducing it as evidence, they had just given me the opportunity to cross-examine on it. And I took advantage of that opportunity by subpoenaing Lauralyn Cantor, the professor whose reporting of this incident played a huge role in my getting expelled from the Education program.

I already showed you the letter Mrs. Cantor sent the Dean. She actually spent most of it complaining about an assignment I wrote, but then finished off with the following:

"At the conclusion of one of the final presentations, Marty made an inappropriate request of an ASL interpreter. The student who had invited the interpreter was embarrassed and offended, and wrote an email, which I have enclosed, with redaction. 

"As indicated, I feel that Marty Green's behavior in class has had a detrimental effect on his fellow classmates.

That's a little vague, but there was nothing vague about email which she attached. Here it is:

"Hi Dr. Cantor,

"I just wanted to send you an email regarding our presentation today. I am really upset about how the presentation ended. I was extremely offended when Mary asked Christie to repeat certain words in sign language so that he could essentially make fun of her. She was super embarrassed and offended when he told her to make the facial expressions that go along with the signs. I am pretty sure that she is never going to do anything like this again, nor will I ask someone to do that again. Facial expressions are part of sign language (as I'm sure you know) and she was very offended that he found it entertaining to watch her make certain facial expressions. I think it was super disrespectful and if I wasn't afraid of Marty making a personal attack on myself, I would have said something to him.

"Several other students in class approached me after the presentation to say how embarrassed they were to even see that happen at a University setting.

"I apologize for my rather hasty email, but I have been upset about this for several hours now and can't seem to calm down. "

That's a pretty harsh letter. So I asked Mrs Cantor on the witness stand: just what was it I did that was so offensive and disrespectful?

Well, she said she could see the student getting very uncomfortable...

But what about you? Did you see anything mean-spirited in my question? Did you think I was making fun of that student?

She did not! Personally, she testified, she had found nothing improper or mean-spirited in my attitutde towards the ASL translator; quite the contrary. I had been respectful and complimentary...."effusive" in my praise of the job she had done translating the student presentaion, I think was the word used.

So why did you send that letter?

Because she was asked to write the letter by John Anchan, the associate dean.

And you attached the student's email, knowing how horrible it made me look. Did you share her perceptions?

"No."

Yet in your email, you mentioned my "inappropriate request" to the ASL interpreter and attached the horrifying email. "Can you see how someone reading the letter...the dean, or the registrar or the people who kicked me out of school...would read this letter and think you shared these perceptions?"

Mrs. Cantor was silent.