KYLIE THOMAS
<Contributor>
I intend to be as polite as possible in responding to your incredibly discourteous email you felt the need to forward to the entire class. Rest assured I will not negate this courtesy by including the considerably ruder thoughts currently circulating in my brain, as you saw fit to do in your email.
The fact that you saw it fit to accuse the majority of our class of having eating disorders in such a casual and sarcastic way suggests to me that you have not been educated in the seriousness of these conditions. I intend to rectify this. Eating disorders are mental illnesses. In fact, they are the most deadly of all mental disorders and the second leading cause of death in adolescent and young women. For those who do not die, it is still an incredibly painful and difficult disorder for those who experience them and the associated behaviours are often compulsive and deeply shameful for those who engage in them. They are not something that someone could simply choose to opt-out of in order to prevent inconveniencing one of their classmates. If you would like more information, please feel free to contact the National Eating Disorder Information Centre. In the future, many of us would prefer if you do not use eating disorders in jest because it is in no way funny.
In addition to mental disorders, there are numerous members of the law school who suffer from physical conditions, including but not limited to, diabetes, hypoglycemia and low blood pressure which require them to eat frequently, including in class, in order to regulate important nutrients. Otherwise they actually might pass out, and the “help” you have suggested they obtain will often consist of a prescribed meal plan which may cut into class time. While I acknowledge there is a ten minute break, I’m sure you can recognize that by the time the person has been through the line in the Bistro that ten minutes will likely be up. I’m sure you can appreciate that many law students have extremely busy lives between various classes, co-curricular activities, families and other commitments and that this time during Administrative Law might be the only time they are able to squeeze in a meal.
I would also suggest that if you are to become “an actual lawyer” that you work on raising the threshold of what annoys you as you are likely to face this dilemma on a daily basis. It seems as though you could benefit from additional coping skills to deal with this annoyance without detrimentally affecting those around you. I gather you have not attended many firm events or open houses, or you would be aware by now that many meetings take place over breakfast or lunch which will require you to develop the skill of blocking out other people’s chewing in order to listen to the person who is speaking. In my experience most of the firms did serve crunchy food. The same will apply to meetings with clients, which are often conducted over meals, where you will need to be able to listen when other people are eating around you. If you become picky about what your clients are eating I suspect you may have trouble retaining them.
Finally, I suggest you pay particular attention to the area of “jurisdiction” in Administrative Law since you seem to have exceeded yours. As a student, not an instructor, administrator or leader in any capacity, I think many of us feel it was highly inappropriate of you to provide the class with any sort of instructional guide as to our conduct. If you have a problem, more appropriate steps such as discussing it with the professor or other administrative personnel, who have both authority and considerably more tact than you, would be advisable in the future. I am sure those sitting near you would have been happy to try to accommodate you had you approached them politely and voiced your concerns regarding their classroom behaviour. I further request you do not speak on behalf of “the rest of us” as, although I was not eating in class, I do not feel your statements adequately represent my views at all. As your email appears to have gone viral, congratulations. I particularly do not want my name associated with this view, or the rude manner in which it was expounded.
Sincerely,
Kylie Thomas