The Disciplinary Committee exists to recommend punishments for students who have violated school rules. This should be the end of it, but oftentimes people who were completely uninvolved in the issue seek to make it their business and spread rumors about the outcome. There is nothing to be gained from behavior such as this except further humiliating the students who are actually in circumstances.

Harmless speculation about DCs spreads like wildfire, and many people accept falsehoods as quickly as facts, which eventually turns to mere gossip. It’s the committee’s job to decide the truth, not the student body’s.

For privacy reasons, details of Disciplinary Committee hearings are kept confidential. We should recognize that, because most of us weren’t actually at the hearing or involved in what lead to the punishment, most of what we hear about DCs is rumor. Details can get blown out of proportion and even made up entirely.

As was said a couple of weeks ago in an announcement at school meeting, we should focus on learning from the incidents rather than pointing fingers and distributing blame. Those involved in DCs are still students here and, therefore, deserve our respect.