Inside Jerry Price’s latest forum
Weeks after Dayton Cole Kingery was arrested on campus on assault and vandalism charges, his now-viral racist and homophobic rant was discussed at Dean of Students Jerry Price’s forum
Don Han, left, is the Operations Manager for the OC Human Relations and was a guest at the community forum hosted by Jerry Price, Dean of Students, right. CLARISSE GUEVARA Staff Photographer
Chapman students voiced their frustration due to lack of information about Dayton Cole Kingery’s enrollment status at Chapman in Dean of Students Jerry Price’s community forum Feb. 18.
Kingery, a former Chapman student, was arrested Feb 4. for assaulting students and vandalizing property while yelling racial and homophobic slurs. The incident, which occurred in Beckman Hall, was caught on video and posted to social media. According to an email released by President Daniele Struppa Feb. 6, Kingery was no longer a student at Chapman University. The specifics of the actions taken were not disclosed due to Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (F.E.R.P.A.) regulations.
“I don’t care what time of day it is, it’s the job of administration to swiftly say something or take action to make the students feel comfortable,” said Lucile Henderson, a junior communication major. “We are here to learn and not be responsible to start movements in response to something that is attacking us, our safety, our ability to learn and our ability to feel comfortable.”
Understanding the student’s frustration with the lack of information regarding Kingery, Price answered questions as best as he could without violating the student’s rights, said Justin Riley, the Associate Director for Student Community Support and Development.
“Students are granted privacy protections in (Chapman’s) code of conduct and in federal law,” Price said in the community forum. “I am an educator. I am not an attorney. There is a very good reason why all of you have privacy protections on campus that extend to your academic and non-academic record.”
Riley began working at Chapman November 2019, following the controversy of the “Birth of a Nation” poster. As a former Chapman alumnus, Riley reached out to Price to help use his experience to ensure black students succeed on campus.
“The university itself is night and day different than when I was a student for all good things,” Riley said. “Yet the stories that are coming out about the community that I care about most, the black community, are the same stories that I said 10 years ago. How has so much changed from a university standpoint, yet this community has been frozen in time.”
Members of Orange County Human Relations, an Orange County non-profit that works to create safe and inclusive environments, were invited to attend the forum as well. Orange County Human Relations respond to hate crimes and incidents.
Dayton Kingery’s behavior was documented as a hate incident in the Orange County report and by OC Human Relations. A hate incident is a behavior motivated by hate or bias towards a person’s gender, disability, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation. These behaviors are not criminal in nature and are typically protected by the First Amendment right to freedom of expression. Examples are verbal abuse, harassment, intimidation and online abuse.
“Everybody shares responsibility,” Riley said. (The administration) is the one that has the power to make the changes (students) want to see. We have more knowledge, foresight and experience on how to execute things. Truth is it is a collective effort.”