<p>"Lowell House senior Brittany J. Smith ’09—one of two students linked to last month’s shooting in a Kirkland House entryway—will not receive her diploma at today’s Commencement exercises, the Boston Globe reported yesterday. </p>
<p>Smith is the long-time girlfriend of New York songwriter Jabrai J. Copney, 20, who last month pled not guilty to charges of first-degree murder for the May 18 shooting that led to the death of 21-year-old Cambridge resident Justin Cosby early the next morning. </p>
<p>After the incident, Copney and the two individuals accompanying him allegedly fled the scene and headed toward Lowell—where Smith lives—and met an unidentified witness, said Assistant District Attorney Daniel Bennett at Copney’s arraignment last month. Copney then told the witness, “there was a fight, and then a shooting,” Bennett said. </p>
<p>According to a Lowell resident who requested anonymity because they did not want their name associated with the incident, Harvard police officers stood outside Smith’s room the evening of the shooting and entered her room between 2 and 3 a.m. the next morning. "</p>
<p>Despite having very low socioeconomic backgrounds, students who are fortunate enough to get admission in elite colleges (or even any colleges they can not afford to pay otherwise), works very hard to overcome their socioeconomic problems at home. </p>
<p>The students know that these opportunities knock at their door once or twice in a lifetime. Therefore, most of these students are not involved in questionable behavior. If they squander the opportunities, it is a problem for them to move to better socioeconomic conditions in their adult life. They also see their other peers who come from better socioeconomic backgrounds are equally motivated to work hard. </p>
<p>On a personal basis, I can say Harvard and other institutions like Harvard has done wonderful job to provide these opportunities to many lower socioeconomic backgrounds kids I know.</p>
<p>I wonder if there is less pot smoking at Harvard than there was in the 1970s. I asked my D, a recent H alum about drug use in the dorms. She said she only smelled pot once while in her dorm and that was inside the room itself, not in the halls. Maybe the walls are thick.</p>
<p>It also doesn’t mean that other drugs are not prevalent on campus. Her class had a big drug scandal–involving LSD. Both students were allowed to continue their education at H, after some time away.</p>
<p>"Northstarmom: It irks me that Chanequa Campbell is using the race card when it seems that for much of her life, she has gotten opportunities because she is poor and black (and also gifted). I find it very hard to imagine that Harvard would prevent her graduation for no reason except her race and socioeconomic background, and I am ticked off that her complaints about Harvard have made it into newspapers around the world. </p>
<p>I suspect that she was fortunate enough to be given some excellent opportunities that she blew. "</p>
<p>I COMPLETELY agree with Northstarmom on this one. There’s a very good possibility that her race and socioeconomic status were considerable tipping factors to get her INTO Harvard in the first place. Harvard and other elite institutions have done SO MUCH to level the playing field and help kids from unfortunate backgrounds rise to the same rank as children born into wealth.</p>
<p>It is a shame that all of the hard work done on the part of Harvard to help people of diverse backgrounds and low income is being discredited because of this (in my opinion) selfish, childish young woman. She can’t take the heat for her actions, and is instead playing the race card to try and blame this on someone else. By doing so, she is seriously hurting the image that Harvard (and other ivy leagues) have been trying to project… that even kids from poor backgrounds can make it to the top and succeed. </p>
<p>She had opportunities that other people (even wealthier white people) can only DREAM of, and she blew it. Even besides this incident, she has a history of disciplinary infractions. I have no pity for her whatsoever. The only party in this mess that I pity is the people at Harvard who work tirelessly to recruit the best and brightest of ALL backgrounds, whose hard work is being thrown into a negative light as Campbell tries to paint Harvard as a racist and biased institution. This girl makes me sick.</p>
<p>The Globe column at that link says it a lot better than I can, much as I have tried.</p>
<p>What has this girl done? She may have smoked pot (which apparently is quite common at Harvard, and colleges everywhere, not to mention middle and high schools) and she gave someone her entry card (which most Harvard students do, with friends). Beyond that, in my mind, she is innocent until I know anything else for sure.</p>
<p>The gist of the article: Harvard is self-protective and is trying to limit the damage by portraying this incident as an intrusion of the world of the 'hood, which would only apply to these few (black) kids, and not the campus as a whole.</p>
<p>The problem isn’t that the girl smoked pot. We don’t even know if she smoked pot. The problem is that she appears to have allowed someone to use her dorm entry card – something that Harvard forbids, and the person who used her entry card is believed by police to have killed someone whom he was trying to rob. For all we know, the police may be investigating Chanequa to figure out if she was part of the robbery plot.</p>
<p>I didn’t say that the problem was that she smoked pot, OR that she gave out her card. I don’t think either of these is the issue.</p>
<p>About the entry card…I have a kid at Harvard. She says that everyone gives their card out to visitors, in fact, she has given hers to me and to her sister, when we run out for coffee or something.</p>
<p>Copney was visiting. He is a graduate of the prestigious LaGuardia School in NYC and a talented musician. Is it against the rules for someone to have him as a visitor?</p>
<p>Again, until there is some proof forthcoming that Campbell was in on some plan to rob and/or kill someone, I think she should be treated as an innocent person.</p>
<p>This isn’t about drugs, and it isn’t about entry, it is about a gun and a person dying. Anyone connected with that act in any way should be punished.</p>
<p>I think it depends on why you loan out a card. If you loan it to someone you know, or should have known, was dealing drugs (that would be Cosby, based on the emails), or someone you know, or should have known, was coming to rip him off (that would be Copney), it is vastly different than loaning card to mom or sis. </p>
<p>Harvard owes an obligation to all of its students – they did not overreach by holding the diplomas unitl the investigation completed. I am certain the police have shared the information from the text messages with Harvard. If the evidence shows no involvment, then the diplomas can be awarded. I suspect it will, and Harvard already knows this.</p>
<p>That Globe op-ed was completely devoid of content. A bunch of speculation about what Harvard was going to do from a lawyer who often represents kids against Harvard, and a bunch of broad brush characterization about how Harvard is spinning this when it’s clear that Harvard hasn’t spun this at all.</p>
<p>The issue isn’t drug use on campus, or drug dealing on campus, or whether your boyfriend can visit you if you both come from a poor neighborhood. The issue is a fatal shooting. Harvard has lots of drug use – always has – and presumably lots of dealers. Harvard has lots of home-town boyfriends. It has (thankfully) very few fatal shootings. I don’t think this situation calls for a jihad against drugs; it calls for a jihad against aiding and abetting murder.</p>
<p>I always hate the argument, “everyone does it”. My kids try that one with me and it does not go over. If there is a rule that your access card can not be leant out, then you better be smart enough to figure out if your leading it out is worth the risk. Daughter lending it to mother or sister is pretty darn safe and I would expect that most students would be willing to take the risk and loan their card to them. Assuming that her card is the one is question, and applying the following quote:
[quote]
Campbell, who lives in the Kirkland annex where the shooting took place, said she is a friend of Copney’s longtime girlfriend, who is also a Harvard student living in Lowell House on campus.</p>
<p>But, she said, she did not know Cosby, who Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said last week was selling marijuana to Harvard students before he was killed.<a href=“I%20believe%20that%20there%20was%20another%20quote%20where%20she%20also%20denied%20knowing%20Copney%20but%20I%20cannot%20find%20it.”>/quote</a>, I would find this to be a case where leading your card out against the rules to someone (either one) whom you do not know is not worth the risk. And if she did know them, then she lied in her early public statements.</p>
<p>Anyhow, my point is “Everyone does it” is not an excuse. If you choose to do it, you do it at your own risk. BTW this also applies to the pot argument.</p>
<p>I’m still wondering why, if the situation is as Campbell has claimed, she will not show the letter she received from Harvard to any representatives of the media.</p>
<p>I thought the Globe piece was dreadful; I don’t think Harvard is controlling the story; I think it must comply with homicide investigators; this is a story about murder-lending your key to a murderer implicates one in a crime. I would think this young woman would be apologetic-even if she had no idea what was to happen-rather than blaming her college for racism. Wasn’t she found guilty of forging checks earlier in a her college career. Sounds like a sociopath.</p>
<p>"OR that she gave out her card. I don’t think either of these is the issue.</p>
<p>About the entry card…I have a kid at Harvard. She says that everyone gives their card out to visitors, in fact, she has given hers to me and to her sister, when we run out for coffee or something.
"</p>
<p>Even though everybody may loan others their card, I believe there is a rule against doing that. The fact that everyone does that doesn’t make it right.</p>
<p>From what I’ve read, it appears that the alleged killer used the card Chanequa loaned him in order to hide out in her dorm after he killed someone. In other words, her loaning him her card allowed an armed and presumed dangerous man to be in Kirkland House when meanwhile Harvard was telling students to stay inside their dorms because there was a killer loose – a killer whom Harvard was presuming was outside, not inside a dorm.</p>
<p>Seems plenty of reason for Harvard to kick her off campus. Also, the murder/robbery investigation is ongoing and it’s likely the police have told Harvard that she is being investigated as a possible accomplice.</p>
<p>^ I thought I read that Smith loaned the card that was used for hiding and that the hiding was in Lowell House while the shooting was in Kirkland. If that is the case then there are two different cards used that day. Sorry if I am wrong but that is what I thought I remembered.</p>
<p>The rules at Harvard were very clear ten years ago, and they’re clear today. I am allowed to invite guests into my dorm, but I am responsible for the misbehavior of my guests. If one of them smashes a window, I have to pay for it. If one of them shoots somebody, that doesn’t let me off the hook!</p>
<p>I don’t think that it’s simply random chance that Campbell’s guest happened to shoot somebody and none of mine ever did. My guests were law-abiding citizens. Drug dealers of all colors commit violence all the time. Knowingly allowing a criminal into dorm space, if that’s what happened, shows a callous disregard for the lives of one’s fellow students. It’s pure luck that no innocent bystanders happened to interrupt this shooting.</p>
<p>I agree with this letter to the editor in the Boston Globe:</p>
<p>" I wonder whose responsibility it is to do the same soul-searching about the circumstances that led Cosby allegedly to become involved with drugs on the Harvard campus and to drop out of Salem State College.</p>
<p>Cosby was outgoing, kind, funny, and a great friend, devoted son, and helpful neighbor. He graduated from Cambridge Rindge and Latin and became part of the school’s impressive college-bound statistics. What went wrong?</p>
<p>I also have told my kids for many years that “everyone does it” is not a good reason for doing things. My comments were only applied to a context where certain actions are being portrayed as unusual and criminal, but are actually quite common, and innocent. </p>
<p>I am not going to post anymore on this. None of us can support or condemn anyone, without more facts. I agree that some of the Globe writers are indulging in speculation, but these opinions are useful as counterbalances.</p>
<p>Let’s just hope that there are no more innocent victims from this incident. I hope that justice is done in the end, but that is not always guaranteed.</p>
<p>^ That letter is silly. The only evidence that Harvard failed to afford Campbell reasonable due process is that Campbell and her lawyer say so, and neither one is exactly disinterested here. Claiming that Harvard’s privacy concerns are a ruse because Campbell is all over the newspapers is like a parricide asking for leniency because he’s an orphan – Campbell is responsible for putting herself on the front page. And there is plenty of reason to believe that she wouldn’t have done that if she thought Harvard might actually make its case against her public.</p>
<p>^
I think JHS is dead on about the media coverage so far … Harvard has been quiet and legally needs to be largely quiet because of privacy laws. </p>
<p>I’m interested in the legal aspects of the case … I think it is possible the students may end up indited in the murder case. In Massachusetts if a murder is committed during a crime all the participants in the crime can be considered responsible for the murder if they had no direct action or even knowledge of the murder. For example, the driver of a get-away car can be indited for murder even if the robbers in the store kill someone even if the driver had no knowledge a gun was going to be carried during the crime. So if the students were in any way knowledgeable about the planned robbery then it seems they might be at risk of being tried for murder … and not walking at graduation will not be on the top of their concerns any longer.</p>