Wongene Daniel Kim, a student at the University of Toronto, filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights because a professor refused to excuse him from attending class because he was too shy to be the only guy in the class. He accused his professor of discriminating against him as a male when she docked him marks for not coming to class. The second-year health science major arrived at the opening of a Women and Gender Studies course for which he had signed up in the fall of 2012 — “It had spaces left and fit into my timetable” — only he was the only man.
“I felt anxiety; I didn’t expect it would be all women and it was a small classroom and about 40 women were sort of sitting in a semicircle and the thought of spending two hours every week sitting there for the next four months was overwhelming,” said Kim, 20, adding he manages a part-time job with women because there are also other men.
“I’m generally a shy person, especially around women, and it would have been a burden if I had had to choose a group for group work.”
He didn’t stay for class but continued in the course and asked Professor Sarah Trimble to waive the 15% of the mark earned by class participation and attendance. She declined, and he ultimately failed. He then complained to the Human Rights Tribunal that Trimble penalized him because he was male. Kim claimed he didn’t know how poorly he was doing until it was too late because Trimble didn’t post marks on the course website. She handed assignments back in class.
“We live in a digital era, why couldn’t she have posted the marks online?” Kim said in an interview. “I believe if you want to attract more males to these courses, you have to work with them. My request for accommodation was reasonable.”
The tribunal rejected his complaint.
“The applicant has not satisfied me that his claimed discomfort in a classroom of women requires accommodation under the (Ontario Human Rights) Code,” wrote adjudicator Mary Truemner. “He admitted that his discomfort is based on his own ‘individual preference’ as a shy person . . . and stated he thought they (the women) would not be willing to interact with him because of his gender (sic).”
This was “merely speculation as he never gave the class, or the women, a chance,” wrote Truemner, vice-chair of the tribunal. Kim had no evidence of being “excluded, disadvantaged or treated unequally on the basis of” his sex.
The case comes weeks after York University came under fire for not supporting a professor’s refusal to excuse a male student from face-to-face group work with female students in an online sociology course because it would violate his religious practice. Professor Paul Grayson argued that to allow the request would have let “religious rights trump women’s rights . . . and tacitly accept a negative definition of females. That’s not acceptable,” he told the Star. But York’s administration said Grayson should have excused the student from group work because York earlier excused an overseas student from group work in an online course. The controversy sparked a national debate about how far universities should go to accommodate students, from religious belief to personal preferences.
“Wongene Daniel Kim claims that Professor Sarah Trimble’s course was the only one that would fit in his schedule, but when he arrived on the first day, he discovered he was the only male in the class.”
He should have dropped the class. Most college and universities allow students to drop a class during the first week of the semester. There usually is a time period in which students are allowed to drop with no penalty or impact on their grade. I’ve dropped a lot of classes. As to the participation part of the grade, professors hand out the syllabus on the first day of class. It’s his fault.
I feel sorry for him in a way because he probably is shy, but don’t blame the professor or other students. The tribunal states, “Kim had no evidence of being “excluded, disadvantaged or treated unequally on the basis of” his sex.”
I don’t see how interacting with women in public places violates religious freedom. He doesn’t have to touch the women. All he has to do is talk to women. This is really insane.
“The student’s religious identity is unclear because human rights rules bar a professor
from asking a student their religion. However, based on the student’s name, Grayson
surmised that he is either an Orthodox Jew or Muslim.
Jewish and Muslim scholars from York told Grayson that neither religion instructs a
man to avoid interacting with women in public.
“Unless he is asked to be physical with a female student, which I assume he isn’t, there
is absolutely no justification for not interacting with females in public space,” an
Islamic scholar wrote to the professor.”
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/01/08/york_u_students_refusal_to_work_with_women_sparks_rights_debate.html#