Get It In Writing

Mark your calendars because you are going to want to remember this day... This is the day I actually had fun at law school! Yes, it's true. Actual fun and laughter. The day started out like any other Tuesday, with Professor Tarkington showing up at 9:30 on the dot for Criminal Procedure. He led a very earth-shattering discussion on the Sixth Amendment, in which I thankfully did not have to partake. As for our friend Becca Rutherford, former RA and alleged girlfriend of Tarkington, whatever happened to make her act so crazy has obviously been resolved. She's coming to class on time, bringing her book and stuff to take notes with, and she occasionally even volunteers answers. Raising her hand and everything.

After class, I went up to the podium with the other students who wanted to fight for Tarkington's individualized attention. As much as I wanted to drop to my knees and profess my undying devotion for getting me out of Rogerson's excuse for a Law Clinic, I decided to go with the more conservative approach and just say "thank you." He said, "no problem," and suggested that I stop by his office before my first class in the morning to discuss his law review article. Great, see ya then, bye. Can you believe how casual we are with each other?

Vickie and Beth, Amy's friends who are in the other 2L Section, asked me to meet them after class. I was thinking along the lines of lunch...maybe shopping... But no, the girls were up to something else. I have to wonder how much of this type of thing Amy participated in. Beth and Vickie were already giggling like little kids, which should have been my first clue not to go with them. Vickie looped her arm around mine, and they led me downstairs to one of the big First Year classrooms. It has stadium seating like our classes, but it includes a lot more rows.

Vickie, Beth, and I walked up the steps toward the Cheap Seats. We did sit in the center of the room, so whoever or whatever was about to go down at the podium was in clear view. Within the next five or ten minutes, other upperlevel students--mostly females--filled in the seats towards the back of the room. Apparently, the First Year students were sitting in the lower seats. With the overflow of upperlevel students, it was almost standing-room only. I finally asked Vickie what was going on. She said, "It's Sex Day."

Sex Day? Oh, good. Sex Day. Can't have enough of those in law school...

I was just about to ask what she was talking about when the door opened and in walked Professor Tarkington. I had a really bad feeling about the whole thing, but I knew I did not dare get up and leave since it is Death-By-Firing-Squad to walk out while Tarkington is speaking. Plus, with all the people, it was doubtful I would make it out without causing a commotion.

Professor Tarkington looked up at all of us and smiled. He said, "It appears we have guests today," to which everyone responded with laughter. He then said we could stay as long as we were quiet. It was at that moment that I realized we were sitting in Tarkington's First Year Criminal Law class. I can only imagine what the First Year students must have thought with so many people just showing up who weren't even registered for the class. It still wasn't quite clear to me what the connection was to Sex Day, but Professor Tarkington soon explained. He gave us an overview of his background as a prosecutor for sex crime cases. Every semester in his Criminal Law class, when they get to the Rape and Consent chapters, he includes a lecture on sex crimes as part of the usual class discussion.

No wonder Beth and Vickie were laughing. They knew we were about to witness Professor Tarkington spend an hour and twenty minutes talking about sex. I regretted that we were smack-dab center of the classroom, and I wondered how he would feel about his future Research Assistant engaging in such juvenile, purient conduct. Then, again, I wasn't THAT worried... It was too late to really do anything about it anyway, and I admit I was already laughing along with the rest of them. Obviously, I am not the only one who thinks Professor Tarkington is good looking... As Tarkington got started, he took off his jacket--I guess it was hot in there with all the people--and the girls around me were actually making "yummy" noises.

Tarkington spoke in greater detail about his career as a prosecutor and how it can be difficult to win rape cases because of something called the "Reasonable Rapist Standard." The jury looks at the situation from the rapist's point of view to determine if he had consent or not. Tarkington explained that if there's evidence, like the rapist caused physical harm to the victim, then that plays into the guilty verdict. Well, sometimes it does. Tarkington then asked the question: "Is it possible to have bruising and other injury during consensual sex?" The girl sitting two seats down from me said, really loudly, "OOH YEAH!"

And that is where the laughter began and did not end. Tarkington started talking about how "no means no," and all the sudden it was like I had joined the Law School Gospel Church, with all the women around me saying "Yes!" and "Amen!" after his comments. Professor Tarkington handled the sex topics very professionally, I must say. He also handled the upperlevel students' comments pretty well, and I wonder how much of them he could actually hear down at the podium.

Professor Tarkington made it really clear as the lecture went on that men and women both have to be careful what they do. I admired him for stressing the role of consent and that "no means no." He said when it came right down to it, it might be a good idea to "get it in writing." Can you imagine that contract?

After the class was over, Vickie and Beth talked me into going down to the podium to pile in with the other Tarkington Groupies who wanted to ask him questions. The girls were asking him all kinds of things involving the consent issue, like how does the law view consent with S&M, or "BDSM" as Tarkington called it. We were all impressed by the extent of his knowledge. At one point, I asked him if these kind of conversations embarrass him. He said no, that nothing embarrasses him.

Of course, we all took that as a challenge.

Some of the questions embarrassed me. There was one girl, a first year student, who was trying to give a scenario as a foundation for her question. She started with, "Okay, Professor Tarkington, say you raped me..." While Tarkington did an excellent job in answering the question and keeping it professional, I thought it wasn't a good idea to let the student include him as a participant in that particular hypothetical. The girls standing around listening all loved it, of course. I think that was the only time during the Sex Day discussion that I felt he didn't handle something as carefully as he could have. And even then, he still was 100% professional.

All this time, I have been given the impression that the first year of law school is total hell. After watching the First Year students today in class, it doesn't seem any different than what students go through in the second year. Minus the sex of course. For an instant, I actually thought about what it might be like for me to start over and go to law school... I wonder if I could do it and be a success at it?