SJC rusticates student accused of vandalism

A finalist at St John’s has been tem­porarily
rusticated for vandalising the college squash courts. Peter
Rogers, a Human Scien­tist, will be excluded from college for the last 3 weeks
of term, dur­ing which he can attend lectures as normal, but cannot step foot
on college land. Rogers has decided to take the
rest of this academic year off be­cause of the negative impact he thinks the
exclusion will have on his degree.Rogers has no recollection of
the vandalism he is accused of. He said, “That night I got pretty much more
drunk than I’ve ever been in my life.” He only became aware of his involvement
when college authorities revealed that his electronic key, or “fob”, was used
to enter the squash courts at 2.53am on the night that the dam­age was done.In
a meeting with Dr Carolyne Larrington, the Senior dean, Rog­ers was told that
he had strewn a croquet set around the squash courts, ripped electrical equip­ment
off the wall and torn the cover from a fusebox.Rogers has questioned the
disci­plinary actions taken against him. He said he felt that the decision to
exclude him from college was made too quickly and with little consultation.He
said “I’ve had two meetings with the Senior Dean and both have lasted from five
to ten min­utes. I felt that she didn’t spend enough time talking to me about
this, and that she was unwilling to negotiate with me about the pun­ishment.”Harry
Kretchmer, JCR Presi­dent, met the dean recently to discuss the disciplinary
actions to be taken against rogers.
He said, “We encouraged her not to rush into any decisions and to use all the
information very carefully. As no information about the case has been released,
we can only hope that this is what has been done.” The
Senior declined to comment on internal disciplinary matters. Kretchmer said
that the Decanal team was “being very cagey about [the case].”Some
members of St John’s said they think Rogers is being made a
scapegoat for several other inci­dents of vandalism that have oc­curred over
the last month. Faeces and urine were found in the table tennis room, while both
the games room and the toilets in the Bee­hive accommodation block were
vandalised. Those responsible for these incidents have not been caught.A
third year at St Johns
said, “Exclusion is a slightly ridiculous punishment for the damage to the
squash court. The college poo bandit is still out there, as is the games room
vandal: it seems like the college’s failure to catch those guys has made them
come down very harshly on Peter.”Rogers
said, “They’re trying to make an example so that those involved in the other
stuff are less likely to reoffend and anyone else is deterred from doing so in
the future.”Rogers is not appealing his
exclu­sion to the President of St John’s. He said, “I don’t believe there’s any
chance that the President would overrule Larrington in her first major
disciplinary decision as Sen­ior dean.” Instead,
he has decided to take the rest of this year off and to return to college in
Michaelmas 2006. “I’m not in the right frame of mind to work, and there are fi­nancial
factors too, like having to pay an extra three weeks rent liv­ing out,” he
said. He added that he had to make the decision quickly because he will be able
to reclaim his tuition fees if he leaves now.ARCHIVE: 4th week MT 2005