Trigger Warnings In School

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A Cautionary word about Cautions
Imagine strolling out the door of a safe, comfortable home only to see a wooden sign staked in the front yard. “WARNING: POTENTIAL DANGER AND UNCOMFORTABLE SITUATIONS AHEAD,” it reads. Similar to this situation, trigger warnings are warnings that are blatantly placed on pieces of literature considered to be trivial or upsetting to students. Though the purpose of these warnings is meant to aid traumatized students, their effects are overwhelmingly negative. Overall, the outcomes of these trigger warnings are detrimental to students’ education and hinder them in their adult lives. Conspicuously, pupils need to be present in class in order to receive a valuable education. However, one consequence of trigger
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College is traditionally where students fresh out of high school experience life as an adult for the first time. Trigger warnings, however, seem to have taken on the role of parents by coddling the students. The author of “Con: “Trigger warnings” impose censorship in the name of sensitivity” states that “Trigger warnings assume that many students are not capable of handling the responsibilities of adult citizenship. At the same time, they also foster the mentality of acting in the place of parents. Universities properly abandoned this idea decades ago” (Downs). Henceforth, if college no longer introduces young adults to unsheltered adult life, pupils are bound to be unceremoniously shoved into life after school. Furthermore, trigger warnings present students with options not available in adult life. In the article , “A.S. Resolution Policy Aims to Protect Students From PTSD Triggers,” Nikki Calderon states that “UCSB has lots of resources, but at the same time they can’t reach you when you’re sitting in a lecture, uncomfortably watching a film,” and “If they do need to miss a lecture they could tell the professor ahead of time and do an alternative assignment” (qtd. in Diamba). As mentioned earlier, various trigger warnings give students the ‘right’ or ‘option’ to skip their classes. This withdrawal leads many professors to hand out replacement assignments. Students may be shocked after graduation when they realize that the real world does not offer these

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