December 17, 2007

Princeton U. Student Admits to Faking Attack Against Himself

A student at Princeton University who claimed that he was the victim of vicious e-mail messages and a physical assault because of his conservative views admitted last week that he had fabricated the story, the Associated Press reports.

Francisco Nava, a junior, confessed to local police officials that scrapes and scratches on his face were self-inflicted, and that he had sent threatening e-mail messages to himself, to fellow members of Princeton’s socially conservative Anscombe Society, and to Robert P. George, a professor of jurisprudence at the university.

Brandon McGinley, a fellow student and columnist for The Daily Princetonian, told the AP: “Everyone feels saddened, shocked, and surprised to have been dragged along in this.” In the campus newspaper on Friday, Mr. McGinley had accused Princeton officials of not taking the threats against Mr. Nava as seriously as they had taken anti-gay graffiti that appeared outside some students’ dormitory rooms this semester.

A spokeswoman for the university told the AP that administrators had not decided how to discipline Mr. Nava, who is 23. Mr. Nava, a politics major and resident assistant from Bedford, Tex., has not been charged with any crime.

Fake reports of racially and ideologically motivated attacks are not new in higher education. Such hoaxes unsettled several campuses in the late 1990s, and a professor at Claremont McKenna College vandalized her own car in 2004, claiming she was the victim of a hate crime. —Sara Lipka

Comments

1. Anyone interested in seeing a much-better way to handle such a difficult case than the path chosen by some members of the Duke faculty, for example, should read Ryan Anderson’s (initial) 12/17 posting at firstthings.com.

   Anderson’s article came out before Nava admitted the hoax. It demonstrates great fairness in trying to support a student who has supposedly been threatened at the same time that it maintains a strong sense of responsibility toward the community. Even though Prof. Robert George is an important conservative intellectual with a great deal more to do than worry about a troubled undergraduate, Anderson shows that he put significant effort into helping Nava while investigating claims that could tear the campus apart.

   It’s extremely unfortunate for a young man to lose his reputation before life has hardly begun, tragic when it opens unrelated serious ideas to fatuous attacks.

   — S. Britchky    Dec 18, 01:07 AM    #

2. Some black and feminist activists have been engaging in these deceptive tactics for years. And when they are revealed as hoaxes, the standard line is, “It doesn’t matter that it didn’t happen, because the prejudice (racism, sexism) is still there.” Is it any wonder that some flaky conservative kid will try the same thing?

   — Ergum Soloff    Dec 18, 09:11 AM    #

3. It truly bothers me that people like Hannity disparage the ‘liberal’ education system as being “anti-conservative”, yet these kinds of things happen. If the educational system would truly be successful at being “anti-conservative”, these students would not perpetuate such hoaxes because [implicit in Hannity’s comments] they would have been successfully brainwashed to BE anti-conservative and thus not do actions that would be critical of liberals …

   — Chris Brancewicz    Dec 18, 10:38 AM    #

4. I agree about the fascist stuff in the conservative media, but the above comment (#3) doesn’t really help our cause. It’s like saying that clearly Nazi Germany was not anti-semitic, because there were people like Oscar Schindler. Fox News is happy to bring liberals into the studio to make such arguments, because then they can say that liberals are silly.

   — Philosophy Prof    Dec 18, 10:56 AM    #

5. It has been perpetrated before by some African American males and females on campuses. However, by the virtue of being African American, they can get away with such hate behavior.

   — Kan Chandras    Dec 18, 11:30 AM    #

6. In the future, everyone will be infamous for nine minutes. —Randy Narwahl

   — marci    Dec 18, 11:35 AM    #

7. what does ‘conservative’ even mean any more?

   — coal_train    Dec 18, 11:47 AM    #

8. To: Chandras and Soloff

   Lots of hoaxes have been played out in the media, remember the runaway bride?
   She’s not a feminist or black.
   Anyone can be mentally ill, not just African Americans and feminists. I think this is what we’re talking about here. The young man needs help, period.

   — JE    Dec 18, 01:32 PM    #

9. How exactly did Hannity enter this discussion? This is not about Hannity, or Limbaugh, or any other member of the media that some would like to silence. It is about one college kid who perpetrated a falsehood. The reason he did this does not matter and the fact that others have done the same and been excused, i.e. black Americans and feminists, have done the same and been excused, does not matter either. What matters is that he lied.

   Now it has been admitted and he can begin the process of restitution and restoration. (And before anyone jumps in proclaiming that he did not cost anyone anything, all dishonesty costs; it is only a question of who pays the price.)

   I recognize that this is probably too simple for some of you, but I see no logic in needlessly complicating the simple.

   — R2    Dec 18, 01:40 PM    #

10. Thank you, R2 and JE. It does not make any difference that the student has “conservative” views or that he is a member of a certain group. It is sad that this story prompted some posters to express their predjudices against certain groups.

    — Dodd    Dec 18, 03:36 PM    #

11. “It is sad that this story prompted some posters to express their predjudices against certain groups.”

    Perfect double standard. Recalling that other groups have faked hate crimes and were excused by many as just “raising awareness” is evidence of prejudice!

    — Mike    Dec 19, 11:20 AM    #

12. Thank you JE,

    Citing anecdotal cases where blacks, feminists, or any other groups have fabricated a story is irrelevant. Indeed we need to know that “this” kid is a conservative because it helps reveal the context of his deceit; however, it should be no indictment on conservatives at large simply because one idiot chose to lie. That flawed perspective is tantamount to bashing past and future rape victims because the accuser in the Duke rape case was proven to be a liar.

    “It has been perpetrated before by some African American males and females on campuses. However, by the virtue of being African American, they can get away with such hate behavior.”

    To Chandras: I think you’re way off with that statement. That’s a very provocative and misleading assumption to be throwing out there. Just because you’ve seen it happen before doesn’t make it a regular practice. Everyone on this form can probably state a case where black, white, asian, gay, lesbian, southern, northern, old, etc has lied in a situation like this…but there’s no need to throw more folks in those groups under the bus because of one’s own prejudices or biases…or whatever. Just call a liar a liar and NOT hint around at blacks, feminists or other groups who have nothing to do with it.

    — Patrick    Dec 19, 06:39 PM    #

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