Reports have stated the student was previously expelled from UMass Amherst for 2 previous similar incidents…including one where he assaulted a LEO and yelled a racial slur at him in the course of being apprehended for being belligerent and rowdy.
Several friends from Connecticut are wondering how in the world he managed to transfer into UConn considering it had a better overall academic rep than UMASS when we were in college and in light of his reported expulsion for the previous serious offenses on campus.
In the comments, they have cited the fact he’s from a well-off part of Long Island and likely has parents who were happy to bail him out of his previous run-ins with the law at UMass.
There’s also a side-discussion in the comments sections about how it’s far less likely the store manager/LEO would have been as “easy” on him during the interaction/arrest if he wasn’t upper/upper-middle class and White.
I’ve read a couple of stories on this – didn’t read the comments – but my first thought was this kid needs help and his parents need to step up. Three alcohol-related arrests at 19? Kid has problems.
While alcohol played a part, a larger factor IMHO is his out and out overly entitled attitude which either came from the way he was raised back home and/or due to his choosing to act in such a manner.
From observing and having imbibed alcoholic beverages myself, I do believe there’s something to be said that the reduction of inhibitions from drinking alcohol presents a more honest revelation of someone’s true personality as the front put forth for politeness and good appearances sake slips off.
Horrible what alcohol can do to a person. I have to admire the cafeteria manager who exhibits more self control than most people would be able to muster in those circumstances. That boy was truly abusive and he really kept it together.
Mom and Dad may have been the ones who told him to withdraw. According to its website, he can still get 25% of his tuition back at this point. http://bursar.uconn.edu/checks-and-refunds/ Since tuition is over $32,000, that’s $8,000.
I watched the video and did not ascertain why the manager had asked Mr. Gatti to leave in the first place. Another site indicated that he had walked into the cafeteria with an open beer can. He clearly lacks any impulse control or executive functioning, if he had already been expelled from another university for alcohol-related offenses.
He is a good-looking kid, and I presume he had respectable academic credentials. He appears to have a certain superficial charm and affability, which have allowed him to escape serious consequences. The escalation of hostility and confrontational tactics suggest pattern behavior.
I have to concur with those who suspect that a white, middle-class (or better) kid was treated more gently than an African-American or Latino.
Reports I’ve read stated the Union Market had a policy against bringing in open containers or drinking alcohol openly on the premises. Especially if one is underaged as that student clearly admitted to in the video when he stated his age as 19.
Manager in that context was well within his rights due to liability and policy reasons to refuse said student service. Unfortunately, the student chose to escalate the situation and throw an entitled temper tantrum followed by physically assaulting him twice despite the manager giving him multiple chances to walk away without involving law enforcement.
What does being “good looking” have to do with it. It has no bearing on his character, behavior, or criminal history. This is his third arrest and in one prior arrest he assaulted and injured a LEO while yelling a racial slur in the process of being apprehended for similar violent rowdy behavior.
I’m not sure if it was “superficial charm and affability” or his well-off parents hiring lawyers and making deals to ensure a relatively clean record. He’s from Bayview, Long Island which is an upper/upper-middle class enclave so his parents are at least pretty well-off.
There’s also some accounts by supposed UConn classmates who recount his behavior while presumably sober during UConn orientation:
Looks like the URL is blocked out. Gist of it was during orientation when discussion came around to discussing the inappropriateness of racial/off-color jokes because it may offend racial minorities or how everyone should look out for each other to minimize situations of sexual assault, said student basically said “racist jokes are funny” and for the latter “Why should I care” and “I don’t give a s**t”. It got to the point an orientation leader told him his statements and exhibited attitude means he may not belong in the UConn community to applause of other attendees before being escorted from the orientation hall.
Re: #7 - @cobrat: I obviously failed to express myself clearly. I was following up the original post with additional information on why the young man was asked to leave; I did not see his beer can in the video, and wasn’t sure what instigated the confrontation. Obviously, they have a right to evict someone carrying an alcoholic beverage, especially when the individual is underage. I was not questioning that action. I was expressing my own initial curiosity, and presenting the background information on the assumption that others might have been similarly curious.
I mentioned his appearance as an explanation for why other students and bystanders seemed more amused than intimidated. I fully agree with everyone else who’s commented that an African-American football or basketball player would have aroused more fear and would not have played his audience in the same way. This young man is accustomed to having his misdeeds laughed off, even after being expelled once before. That is the ultimate hallmark of privilege. For him, this is a “war-story” that he expects to delight his drinking buddies with for years. Ridiculing and challenging working-class people is a spectator sport.
He will soon realize that an assault record, and two disciplinary expulsions by the age of nineteen, won’t earn him more than a few high-fives from post-adolescents hanging around his home-town with nothing better to do. Of course, his parents will try to get him off on reduced charges, with fines and community service. They will probably check him into rehab, but he didn’t look like a guy who is ready to acknowledge that he has hit bottom.
He might regret the socks and sandals, though, since they are now part of his permanent record.
I think this young man has a whole slew of issues and needs counseling/rehab before he ruins his life. If he were my kid, I’d be horrified by his behavior. I heard about the incident on several local Boston stations (morning news) and also on Jimmy Fallon’s show. These outlets seem to be treating the episode as a college kid ranting because he can’t get jalapeño bacon mac and cheese. On the news report I saw one of the commentators made the remark that he’d rant to if he couldn’t get jalapeño mac and cheese because it looked good. I think it’s more than a rant–the kid is drunk and obnoxious and needs help. After I saw the video, I didn’t think it was a funny episode. I thought it was a sad situation. The way this kid treats the cafeteria manager and the worker is disrespectful and offensive.
True, but it does seem like his parents have been enablers so far. Seems like most parents here would have sent him to community college while living at home under parental supervision after he got in trouble at a residential college (especially a more expensive out-of-state one). Sending him to another residential college (another out-of-state one at increased cost) does not seem like something a reasonable parent would do.
Getting back to the question in the OP, most colleges don’t annotate a student’s transcript aside from suspension (and then the annotation’s removed once the suspension period is over) or expulsion—and even then it’s almost always done without any mention of the reason for the suspension/expulsion. The reason, historically, has been to protect the privacy of the student, and because of the idea that once you’ve served your time you’re done with it. (Fear of litigation drives some of this, too—such a notation would make transferring very, very difficult—and if
This is coming under question, because it means that a student can be placed on probation for, say, threatening another student, and then transfer to another school where the administration has absolutely no idea that this student may be a potential threat to others. (Perhaps ironically, fear of litigation is driving a lot of the discussions going on about this.) No real “best practice” in how to deal with this has emerged, including whether the onus should be on the institution a student comes from or the institution the student transfers into to make sure the information is exchanged—not to mention the issue of how to deal with a student who, say, simply takes a single summer course as a non-degree student while on disciplinary status at the home institution.
However, under current practice, at nearly all schools, if another institution or a governmental organization asks whether a student was ever placed on disciplinary status (which the federal government usually does, state governments sometimes do, local governments effectively never do, medical schools always do, law schools usually do, other graduate programs rarely do, and undergraduate transfers basically never do), then they are told whether a student was ever placed on warning, probation, suspension, or expulsion from a school. Further, most schools will also divulge to those groups (if they ask for it specifically) whether it was an academic performance, academic dishonest, or code of conduct violation.
TL;DR: UConn didn’t know because UMass didn’t tell them—and they didn’t know/didn’t tell because there isn’t really a good system in place for making sure such information exchange can happen.
This seems similar to past employers only verifying objective information about former employees (e.g. dates employed) and avoiding any subjective judgements or negative information.
We don’t really know what his parents have tried or whether he is indeed affluent. They were likely relieved not to have him home for a month. He would have to cooperate to get help.
In his mug shot from Amherst (I googled for other stories), he has an extra fold around his eyes and a flat philtrum. I wonder if he has Fetal Alcohol Effect? Alcohol is poison for them. His nose looks like it has been broken and healed. No doubt he has some issues.
The cafeteria manger showed remarkable constraint.
Does anyone have a recipe for bacon jalapeno mac & cheese? It sounds addicting.
Let’s not bring race into this. That’s an inflammatory statement with no basis in fact. I’m really offended by it. So now all white people by default are racist? You don’t even know this person, and yet you presume he’s racist. With no evidence. And there’s a side discussion on it, no less.
This is the first time I’ve ever felt they should close a thread down up here.