Me 1981-2 DeLaSalle High School, Gonzaga and Kyle Kashuv in 2019
I have read a few articles about Mr Kashuv, those that support him and those that support Harvard. The crux of his support seems to focus on how it was two years ago, that he was being immature, that he has grown, has learned from the ordeal and he has so much potential that what is happening to him is unfair.
Casting aside the racial and gender dimensions, I am going to focus on this from my own experience.
September 1981 started my senior year at De La Salle High School in Concord, California (Before DLS became an institution focused on its football program as the center of its universe). DLS was/is a highly regarded Catholic high school, it had/has a reputation for excellence in education and for having fairly high expectations on the behavior of its students.
I spent part of the year filling out applications and attending the recruiting sessions from university representatives. I wanted to go to Washington State University, but when the recruitment representative from Gonzaga came, I thought that might be the school for me.
I filled out my application, got letters of recommendation from my teachers and sent my transcripts; I had a 2.9, not the greatest, but enough to get in.
"Why would they turn me down? I have good grades, have been a three year starter on the varsity baseball team, been in most of the school plays, have volunteered in elementary schools and I am Catholic. Why would they turn me down?
No way they could.
They did.
I found out that they considered my character to be questionable. This confused me.
Why did they turn me down?
Because in my junior year, I had written a story titled, "Escape from De La Salle." (I saw Escape from New York and it was my 'inspiration') It was a pseudo dystopian kind of story that mocked the school, the administration and the teachers. It was thirty pages long, a bit over-the-top, I admitted at the time, and many of my peers found it funny. The school could have overlooked the story, I mean, it's a story I wrote for my friends and I to laugh at.
But, for some immature reason, I thought it would be funny to post it. I made many, many copies and placed them all over the school. Now, there was no 'n' word in my story, or anything racial in it. But, I made several references to a teacher being gay, one teacher being a violent fascist, I mocked several students at the school and so on.
Things that were funny to a teenager, but not funny to people whom I was mocking
When Gonzaga's Admissions found out about the events of the story, that was it for Gonzaga and me. Whose fault is that? It's mine. I accepted I screwed up then and I still do. Getting into Gonzaga is not a right, Gonzaga was not obligated to accept me. They made a decision based on what I had done and decided that I was a poor fit.
I moved on, applied to other universities, and ultimately went to Washington State University and was fine with it. I didn't complain, or whine or whatever. I didn't try and play the martyr whose potential was being snuffed out by the horrible guardians of morality at Gonzaga University.
The fact is, what I did and Mr. Kashuv did in high school is how they decide to let people in. They don't possess crystal balls and special elixirs that let them see the future of every person who applies. It's kind of hard to say which people have the most potential out of the thousands of applications they receive every year. Like posting pictures on facebook of you at a drunken orgy can cost you admissions and job possibilities, posting obnoxious racist twits, or posting an inappropriate story around the school can cost you admission as well.
Similar to, the good things you do and say help you get into universities, because they show qualities about your past that make you a desirable candidate for admission, stupid stuff makes you undesirable.
I would argue letting him in to Harvard, or in the case of me, Gonazga, sends the worst possible message; 'That you can do racist, stupid, horrible, obnoxious things that offend and embarrass others and there are no consequences for your actions, because you believe you have 'potential'.
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