# Two students can't be charged for hurling homophobic slurs
## Dean says the remarks don't violate Standard 
### Juthymas Harntha Staff writer 
Two students who made homo
phobic remarks directed at Otero
Resident Fellow Dennis Matthies
will not be prosecuted under the
Fundamental Standard, accord
ing to Dean of Students Michael
Jackson.
First-year law student Keith
Rabois, senior Michael Ehrman
and junior Bret Scher entered
Otero on their way to a party the
night of Jan. 19, according to
Rabois.
William Shepherd, the head
advising associate at Otero, said
he was sitting in the dorm lobby
when he saw the students pass.
"A moment later, I heard a voice
screaming, 'Faggot! Faggot!,'" he
said.

"I watched the three of them
walk ... to Madera. The entire
time, one of them continued to
scream comments, including,
'Faggot! Hope you die of AIDS!'
and 'Can't wait 'til you die, fag
got!' These remarks were all
directed at the RF cottage."
Rabois confirmed those
remarks "in substantive con
tent," saying that the remarks
made by he and Ehrman were
"reasonably close to that."
Scher did not say anything at
the time, according to Rabois.
Matthies said he assumed the
comments "were about me, but
they were not spoken to me."
However, he said he is not homo
sexual and did not know why the
students thought he was. "You'd
have to ask them," he said.
Jackson said the students will

not be prosecuted under the stan
dard because it is too narrowly de
fined to be applied to the incident.
"There is a very narrow area
within which we can apply the
interpretation," he said. Accord
ing to Jackson, University offi
cials "want to be able to take judi
cial action . . . (but) you can't
always prosecute individuals for
these actions."
However, Jackson and Law
Prof. Thomas Grey differed in
their interpretations of the Fun
damental Standard.
The 1990 interpretation of the
standard, authored by Grey, says
that speech constitutes harass
ment if it "is intended to insult or
stigmatize an individual ... on
the basis of their sex, race, color,
handicap, religion, sexual orienta
tion, or national and ethnic ori
gin; and is addressed directly to
the individual. . . whom it insults
or stigmatizes; and makes use of
insulting or 'fighting' words or
non-verbal symbols."
Jackson also said that the com
ments didn't violate the Funda
mental Standard because they
were not made face-to-face.
However, Grey said that
"yelling through the door knowing
that the person is there" is the
same as a face-to-face confronta

tion. "As long as the words were
intended to be communicated to a
particular person," they constitute
harassment, he said.
But Grey said that in this case,
the standard wasn't violated
because the comments were not
directed toward another student.
"In my interpretation, under
the harassment aspect of the
standard, only students are pro
tected," he said.
Although Rabois admitted that
many of the group's comments
were directed at Matthies, he said
"they were mostly about faggots
being bad in general.
"People are always complain
ing about there being a very regi
mented orthodoxy about what

you're allowed to say (in Otero),"
Rabois said. "Dennis gets away
with intimidating an entire dorm
of 80 freshmen every year."
Rabois has criticized Matthies
in several Stanford Review arti
cles during the past few years.
Rabois and Ehrman have both
written for the publication.
Ehrman's brother, Kenny
Ehrman, was evicted from Otero in
May 1988 after what the residence
staff alleged were months of bel
ligerent and homophobic behavior,
including harassment of Matthies
and a gay resident assistant.
One of the comments Rabois
said he made in the Jan. 19 inci
dent was "See if you can kick me
out of housing."

According to Scher, the three
students were contacted by Resi
dence Dean Angela Rickford a
week after the incident. "She lec
tured me on societal norms while
I talked about the first amend
ment," he said.
"In my opinion, this was free
speech," he added. "I wasn't
offended by it. It's ridiculous that
it was even investigated."
Rabois said he has refused to
meet with University officials
because "my time's too valuable.
Whatever was said was certainly
legitimate criticism.
"I'm a first-year law student. I
know exactly what you can say
and what you can't," he said.
However, Rabois said that

although he and Ehrman did not
violate the standard, "I would
love to see someone test it. I
wouldn't mind being the one.
Jackson said he agrees that
"people need as much latitude as
possible in the area of speech. I
am exercising my speech to say
that I object to the way in which
[the students] spoke out."
According to Jackson, the best
way to deal with the incident is by
letting the community know what
happened. "If 25,000 to 30,000
people know that you said some
thing like that, you're probably
being punished," he said.

Yaser Haddara contributed to this
report.