Two students were arrested this month and banned from entering campus without security escort for using pellet guns.
In one incident, a student fired a pellet gun at the windows of Gordon-Brockington House residence on Sept. 27. The second incident involved a Victoria Hall resident who fired a pellet gun from his window Oct. 2 and hit a University employee in the leg.
Police laid charges but they were dropped in the second incident when the victim couldn’t identify the student who shot the gun.
In a third incident, a pellet gun was found in a student’s residence room.
The University’s weapons policy prohibits pellet guns, and they have caused fatalities before.
Vice-Principal (Academic) Patrick Deane said although the students can’t enter Queen’s campus, they’re still registered in their courses and are expected to keep up with their work.
The University should be commended for its decision to bar the students’ entry onto campus. It’s reassuring that Queen’s is able to respond quickly to protect students.
But right now, having the students barred from campus but still registered in their courses creates an unfair strain on their professors to accommodate them.
The two perpetrators will face discipline through JComm, the AMS student-run judicial process. The student in the second incident will also stand before the MCRC discipline system. It’s unclear if anyone in the third incident is being subject to disciplinary action as well.
It’s encouraging that the two student-run discipline systems, rather than the University, are dealing with the issue. Student arbitrators understand their peers’ circumstances better than non-students do.
The discipline systems need to quickly reach resolutions in these two cases because how they deal with these cases could set the proper tone to deter future incidents.
The MCRC and JComm might benefit from having policies in place to fast-track the discipline process for emergency cases so they bypass the backlog of cases involving less significant infractions.
The University Senate is the only body that can expel a student, but JComm can recommend this action if it deems a case serious enough to warrant it.
JComm should recommend expulsions in both cases; it sends a message that, although pellet guns may be fun at the cottage, they’re inappropriate on a university campus.
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.