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Parkland shooting survivor Kyle Kashuv’s admission offer to Harvard University was rescinded this week after racist and inflammatory comments made by Kashuv were published by his classmates from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Kashuv revealed the University’s decision on Twitter on Monday, stating, “Three months after being admitted to Harvard Class of 2023, Harvard has decided to rescind my admission over texts and comments made nearly two years ago, months prior to the shooting.”
The “abhorrent racial slurs” used by Kashuv were exposed by HuffPost. The comments were made in Google Docs and in private chats between Kashuv and friends.
Kashuv expressed concern about Harvard’s “deciding that someone can’t grow, especially after a life-altering event like the shooting,” stating “If any institution should understand growth, it’s Harvard, which is looked to as the pinnacle of higher education despite its checkered past.”
Harvard’s “checkered past,” according to Kashuv, includes the fact that, “Throughout its history, Harvard’s faculty has included slave owners, segregationists, bigots and antisemites.”
The reactions to Kashuv’s predicament were various and largely split along party lines. Conservative commentators tended to find the university’s decision rash and unfair, while progressive commentators found that Kashuv’s language merited nothing less.
A mature person would take this as a lesson, apologize, and live his life based on an improved moral compass. An immature person would try to argue that at 16 he thought this language was acceptable and is entitled to the education he demands. Be mature🐮
— Devin Nunes’ cow 🐮 (@DevinCow) June 17, 2019
The focus on Kyle Kashuv leaves out key players. There were tens of thousands of wonderful applicants to Harvard who did NOT do what he did. Why on earth would Harvard keep someone like him when they can use their resources on one of those folks, instead?
— Heather Cox Richardson (TDPR) (@HC_Richardson) June 18, 2019
Regardless of what you think of @KyleKashuv — and for the record, I think he, like many other Parkland survivors, has handled the public limelight with grace and strength — Harvard's auto-da-fe sets up an insane, cruel standard no one can possibly meet. https://t.co/zgL26OPaSZ
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 17, 2019
It's insane and oppressive to rescind college admission on the basis of "offensive statements" teens made on social media. In order to gain admission to elite institutions, teens now have to be career-minded, perfect little angels beginning at childhood https://t.co/aI0u1eZ7ky
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 17, 2019
So Kyle Kashuv will not be going to Harvard, but did the University make the right decision, or is it overreacting to something that no longer speaks to the character or maturity of Mr. Kashuv now? Sound off in the comments below to let us know!