丽莎·里滕豪斯(Lisa Rittenhouse)在南伊利诺伊大学(Southern Illinois University)法学院读了一年后，她的平均成绩为1.948，略低于保证下一学期进入法学院的平均成绩1.95。她是重新申请入学的六名学生之一，也是唯一一个被拒绝的学生，尽管她声称自己的GPA是所有申请者中最高的。她现在以歧视为由起诉SIU，声称她被拒绝是因为她是白人——其中四人是少数族裔，还因为她患有注意力缺陷多动障碍、II型双相情感障碍和诵读困难。歧视问题很复杂。一方面，她声称自己是歧视的受害者，毫不避讳地提到她的种族是重新被SIU接纳的障碍。另一方面，她声称自己没有得到足够的残疾帮助，但法学院坦率地承认它不会给她任何特殊的照顾。法学院的招生委员会似乎赢不了。在多样性的基础上给予太多的帮助，你是一个反种族主义者，但对残疾人给予太少，你就落后了。但里滕豪斯似乎搞错了。对于一个努力想要取得好成绩的人来说，最后离再次被录取差百分之二似乎是一个令人信服的理由，让她继续努力。 But it’s not as though law school is like other institutions. It is sort of a trade school, whose end goal is to instill in its students a certain competence at understanding and working within the law. Our belief that one can achieve anything leads us to sue when we are unable to do it ourselves. Rittenhouse seems to have stumbled upon a hard truth – there are some hardships for which we cannot be compensated.\nIn grade school, extra time for testing makes sense. If one is a slow reader, the student is allowed extra time to digest the material. The idea here is to remove barriers to success that exist in the education system. Comprehension, not speed of reading, is the end goal. But law school is the real world, and no matter in which branch of law Rittenhouse aspires to work, surely she knows that neither companies nor opposing counsels will ever give extra accommodation, no matter how severe her disability.\nRittenhouse is demanding to receive treatment for her condition and that no one else be given special treatment for race. But, really, racial diversity is a strength. The idea is that different people would provide a broad resource of skills and opinions that allow us to solve problems in different ways. Sadly, ADHD and dyslexia are not strengths. They are weaknesses, and although society should not give these people any extra grief, it benefits no one to give them extra advantages. With Rittenhouse’s tenacity, surely there are other things in which she could succeed, but it seems law school is not one of them. And that is no one’s fault.
