Two mock trial coaches debating whether to put a Latino student on their team for the sake of “diversity” — even though the three Latino candidates who applied did not impress them — have resigned after their private discussion became public and prompted outrage and accusations of racism.
The father-daughter pair of mock trial coaches at the University of Maryland, College Park were asked by administrators to resign their posts — and did so on Friday — after a leaked email that showed one of the coaches characterizing Latino students trying out for the team as “pretty bad” and “mediocre” was accidentally shared with students.
“The question I have is about diversity. There were three (obviously) Latino students who came; one was mediocre, two were pretty bad (one of the two bad ones didn’t seem to take it especially seriously). But we have almost no Latino students on team,” Abigail Graber, a lawyer who served as a volunteer coach, wrote in her email to her father.
Graber said in the email that she was inclined to accept one of the Latino students onto the team and the “mediocre” student was her preferred choice. “She’s the one I would probably take no matter what, what she lacks in skill she makes up in confidence, although she may be too busy for this commitment,” she wrote.
Mark Graber accidentally shared his daughter’s email in a message sent to students announcing who had been accepted into the mock trial course. Minutes after sending his email, Mark Graber realized the inclusion of his daughter’s email and quickly sent an apology, The Washington Post reports.
“Huge apologies to Abigail and all of you. I thought I had edited the email so that all that was on the forwarded email was names and emails,” he said.
But a screenshot of the Abigail Graber’s controversial email soon ended up on Twitter, posted by University of Maryland student Jocelyn Nolasco.
“A racist email and it’s only the fourth day of classes,” Nolasco wrote.
https://twitter.com/Jocelyn_DotCom/status/903308782054375424
Nolasco told news outlets she was the “mediocre” Latino student mentioned in Abigail Graber’s email. The Diamondback, the university’s student newspaper, reported that Mark Graber sent an individual apology email to Nolasco that in part said “while other students could only guess their confidential assessment, yours is obvious from the context.”
Mark Graber was slated to be a visiting mock trial professor at the College Park campus this fall. His curriculum vitae lists him as being the director of Maryland mock trial since 2004. The university’s mock trial team is part of a three-credit course, according to a team website.
In March, he won an award from the American Mock Trial Association given annually to an individual who’s “made outstanding and exemplary contributions to law related education and its mission to promote public understanding of law and the legal process.”
Graber, 61, also teaches at the University of Maryland School of Law, which is located on the campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Alex Likowski, a spokesman for the Baltimore campus, told The College Fix that Mark Graber will continue to teach at the University of Maryland law school. Speaking on Graber’s behalf, Likowski said the professor “has apologized for hurt feelings” from his daughter’s email.
“He is and has always been committed to diversity in the classroom. Nothing that transpired belies that commitment,” Likowski said in an email.
Abigail Graber told the students in a resignation email that she was “terribly sad to leave the program and all of you this way,” according to the The Diamondback. Graber did not respond to a request for comment from The College Fix.
A brief statement provided to The Fix by the University of Maryland, College Park said the school’s associate dean for the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences Katherine Russell contacted students who accidentally received Abigail Graber’s email and invited them to come forward with any concerns.
The university said it will announce a new mock trial coach shortly.
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