Academic Ethics: The Legal Tangle of ‘Trigger Warnings’; Chronicle of Higher Education, 11/13/16

Brian Leiter, Chronicle of Higher Education; Academic Ethics: The Legal Tangle of ‘Trigger Warnings’ :

"A report on trigger warnings by the American Association of University Professors identified similar cases, calling them "anti-intellectual and infantilizing," which many of them do seem to be. The AAUP pointed to a policy at Oberlin College (subsequently tabled) that listed the following as topics warranting trigger warnings: "racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism, ableism, and other issues of privilege and oppression." The draft Oberlin report even cited Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart since it could "trigger readers who have experienced racism, colonialism, religious persecution, violence, suicide and more."

There is plainly no legal or moral obligation to issue trigger warnings for these kinds of reasons, and there are strong moral reasons not to: The whole point of trigger warnings — as the real PTSD cases show — is to enable students to avoid engagement with materials. But how can that be compatible with the ethical imperative of educating young people? Students should, of course, engage with all facets of human experience in a serious education — including all the ghastly aspects of human experience — except to the extent that a documented medical condition makes that impossible...

Teachers should issue trigger warnings in the easy cases, but in all other cases, they ought to refrain from trying to shield students from serious study of the human experience, even when morally offensive. At the same time, teachers should discharge their fundamental duty — namely, helping students learn.

Sometimes discharging both tasks will require skill and sensitivity, but it is the ethical obligation of a serious teacher to develop both capacities."