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'Expel anti-speech zealots': Students demand Stanford fire woke dean Tirien Steinbach for heckling judge at school event

Woke inclusivity dean Tirien Steinbach verbally attacked Donald Trump-appointed Judge Kyle Duncan over his opinions on same-sex marriage

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA: Students of Stanford University have demanded that a woke inclusivity dean be fired for berating a conservative judge at a recent law school event. The college, however, has refused to ask her to leave. In an opinion piece in their newspaper, the students insisted that Tirien Steinbach be fired as she did not deserve to be a dean of the university. They also said "anti-speech zealots" must be expelled. 

Steinbach held the 'COVID, Guns and Twitter' event at Stanford Law's Federalist Society last week, Daily Mail reported. Donald Trump-appointed Judge Kyle Duncan was a speaker at the event. The event, which soon turned into a smear campaign, saw the DEI dean berating the judicial officer in a six-minute speech due to his unfavorable opinions on same-sex marriage, as well as trans and reproductive rights.

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Who is Tirien Steinbach?

Steinbach has served as a lawyer, clinical supervisor, program director, and then executive director of the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) for 17 years. Here, she founded the nation’s first reentry clinic, named 'Clean Slate Clinic'. 

"Tirien served for two years as the Chief Program Officer at the ACLU of Northern California. In this capacity, she provided support and guidance to the four programmatic departments: Legal & Policy, Communications, Organizing, and California Advocacy & Policy (statewide legislation). Tirien also conducts classes and training on increasing mindfulness and cultural responsiveness in the law and legal profession. In 2017, she launched the Coalition for Equity and Inclusion in Law (CCEIL), a Bay Area regional cohort of law and policy organizations dedicated to advancing greater cultural equity, inclusion, and diversity in the sector," reads her bio on the Stanford Law School website. 

"Tirien received her bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Cruz and her law degree from Berkeley Law School (1999), where she served as president of the Berkeley Law Foundation and vice president of the Law Students of African Descent. She has been recognized for her social justice legal work, receiving both Equal Justice Works and Berkeley Law Foundation fellowships, the inaugural Thelton E. Henderson Social Justice Prize, the 2015 Berkeley Law Young Alumna Award, and the 2017 Alameda County Woman Lawyer of Distinction Award," it adds. "Tirien is a lifetime East Bay Area resident who loves cooking, crafting, and hanging out with her family, and she will always cherish the memory of the night she got to dance on stage with Prince."

What did Tirien Steinbach say?

Rallying together, students have penned a scathing article. The piece, published in 'The Stanford Review,' headlined 'Fire Tirien Steinbach', has been written by Stanford students Josia Joner, Thomas Adamo, and Walker Stewart. 

They wrote, recalling the chaos, "At the center of the debacle was not the group of unruly law students, but Tirien Steinbach." They added, "After constant heckling, Judge Duncan asked for an administrator, hoping to calm the unruly crowd. However, Dean Steinbach took the podium with a notebook and prepared remarks, ready to slam Duncan as well. “Your work has caused harm… and I know that must be uncomfortable to hear,” she told him. This time, when Judge Duncan tried to interject, the students shouted, “let her finish!” and Steinbach finished her speech with ease."

"Steinbach stated her supposed commitment to free speech: “Me and many people in this administration do absolutely believe in free speech,” (note how she said many people and not all people, perhaps a Freudian slip), “We believe that it is necessary. We believe that the way to address speech that feels abhorrent, that feels harmful, that literally denies the humanity of people—that one way to do that is with more speech and not less. And not to shut you down or censor you"," the writer said.

Standford's apology to Kyle Duncan

Standford later apologized to the judge on Steinbach's behalf. However, it did not mention the dean by her name. "We write to apologize for the disruption of your recent speech at Stanford Law School," the statement read. "As has already been communicated to our community, what happened was inconsistent with our policies on free speech. We are very sorry about the experience you had while visiting our campus." Duncan has reportedly acknowledged and accepted the apology.

"The university’s apology will be completely meaningless unless concrete actions are taken to rid the administration of anti-speech zealots," the students' article read. "Stanford claims that they “are taking steps to ensure that something like this does not happen again.” If Stanford cares about free speech, it must fire any administrator who actively encourages these unruly actions against it. Someone who is so eager, at the behest of an unruly mob, to shut down free speech, which Stanford itself considers “a bedrock principle for the law school, the university, and a democratic society,” has no place as a Stanford dean. She helped engineer chaos with her email before the event, delivered prepared remarks interrupting his speech, took the spotlight for herself, and has shown no remorse since."

'The attack was intimately personal'

Duncan later said in an interview with Rod Dreher, "This is one of the best law schools in the world. The students are the cream of the crop. The future judges, senators, presidents, and leaders of the industry. And yet here is a mob of the best and brightest, shouting down a federal judge who’s been invited to campus, and thereby demonstrating that they don’t have the foggiest grasp of the basic concept of legal discourse: you have to meet reason with reason. Instead, their operating principle is: If I don’t like what you say or think, I will silence you," as per Substack.

"Unless those students undergo a radical change in their whole approach to argument and disagreement, they are unfit to be members of any bar," he said, adding, "The attack was intimately personal and, frankly, disgusting. If I talked to a dog the way those students talked to me, I’d feel ashamed." He said the entire "sorry episode" was like the "therapy session from hell."

'Stanford law is creating an environment of victims'

Many blasted Steinbach on social media, with one user saying on Twitter, "Despicable. It is obvious they only invited him to speak in order to heckle and embarrass him. But they embarrass themselves." "This is appalling and makes me sick to think that these law students will be judging and ruling the courtrooms," one user said, while another wrote, "I’d rather be in a room listening to an electrician talk about fixing a blown fuse over these students and educators." "Stanford along with most other colleges are lost causes," one user said.

"We are doomed. "Ethics"? Let us begin with - "A particular system of principles and rules concerning moral obligations and regard for the rights of others, whether true or false". Regardless of subject, their classes are ALL ideology! They invited him for a display not a lecture," one user wrote, while another said, "A law school that teaches that law isn't in fact, objective, that justice isn't blind. You have to wonder what things look like when these subjective people take over." "How shameful. They are clearly proving they don't believe in free speech or debate. They believe in censorship. This DEI dean is an example of what DEI is, a system for ideological discrimination, censorship, and race and sex discrimination. She gave the talk he was invited to give. I do not know his views, but universities are places where ideas should be debated," wrote one user. Another said, "Looks like Stanford law is creating an environment of victims. Pathetic."

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