School suspends 13 students in Facebook scandal

Thirteen dentistry students at Halifax’s Dalhousie University who were part of a “gentlemen’s” Facebook group were suspended over outrageous and offensive Facebook posts about female colleagues, the school’s president said Monday in a disciplinary announcement delayed by fears the male students were in danger of selfharm over the scandal.

As the suspension was announced, fallout from the incident continued, with the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario demanding to know the names of students involved, in case any of them apply to practice in the province — assuming they are able to graduate and become doctors.

“I am concerned about the misogynist, sexist, gender violent kind of behaviour. … We would take a good hard look as to whether or not we thought they were suitable to practice,” said Irwin Fefergrad, registrar of Ontario’s dental college, which regulates who can be a dentist in the province.

The social media posts — which included suggestions dentistry anesthetics be used to subdue female classmates prior to rape and a vote on the relative aggressive sexual interest in various classmates in the school’s small Faculty of Dentistry — were made over three years in a private Facebook group for the school’s male dental students.

The 13 fourth-year students allegedly involved have been suspended from clinical activities while the case is under review, which will, at least temporarily, prevent them from acquiring a degree because dentistry students are required to complete work in dental clinics as part of their studies.

The university said other disciplinary measures and broader action are pending.

Dalhousie’s administration became aware of the posts on Dec. 8 by a student who was affected by the commentary, university president Richard Florizone said. The student, apparently a female dentistry student, had been referred to his office after first complaining to the university’s Human Rights, Equity and Harassment Prevention office.

A week later, the Facebook group and some of its posts were published by the CBC, which had been given copies of some of the material after the Facebook page was taken down. Subsequently, several of the women who were the subject of some of the comments, as well as male members of the Facebook group, came forward to the school’s administration, said Florizone.