The administration at Stanford University’s law school are simultaneously telling the public that the heckling of a federal appellate judge, Kyle Duncan, was unwarranted as they tell students that they are justifiably traumatized by his appearance. 

In an email, Stanford law lecturer Jeanne Merino told students that they should reach out to the school’s administration for the sake of their “safety and mental health.”

“There is much to process about Thursday’s event and its aftermath,” wrote Ms. Merino, who serves as a “resource” for the law school’s Office of Student Affairs. “I’ve seen and heard from many of you who are concerned for your safety and are having a hard time processing last week’s events. I am sorry that you are having to deal with this difficulty at all, much less now.”

Ms. Merino referred those students to a clinical psychologist who works in the school’s office of general counsel, told students that “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” officials were available for meetings, and recommended that groups remove themselves from social media “until the news cycle winds down.”

The message — seemingly justifying the students’ actions and blaming Judge Duncan for the perceived harm he caused — appears to be in conflict with the school’s public apology to the judge.

On Sunday, the president of the university and the dean of the law school sent a joint apology to Judge Duncan’s chambers, saying the students’ actions were “inconsistent” with the school’s free speech policies. 

“We are very clear with our students that, given our commitment to free expression, if there are speakers they disagree with, they are welcome to exercise their right to protest but not to disrupt the proceedings,” wrote President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Dean Jenny Martinez. 

The Washington Free Beacon reported that Ms. Martinez’s constitutional law class was met with nearly 50 protesters on Monday. When students entered the class, dozens of messages were posted on the whiteboard at the front of the room with messages denouncing the dean and her apology letter to Judge Duncan. 

Many students wore black outfits and face masks in protest of her letter. “They gave us weird looks if we didn’t wear black,” first-year law student Luke Schumacher told the Free Beacon. “It didn’t feel like the inclusive, belonging atmosphere that the DEI office claims to be creating.”

The dean and her students who declined to protest were then forced to exit the building after class concluded down a long hallway lined with protestors wearing black.

On Thursday, a judge on the Fifth Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals, Kyle Duncan, appeared on campus at the behest of the schools’ chapter of the Federalist Society, which is a conservative network of students, professors, and working lawyers. 

As students shouted him down as he was giving remarks, he requested an administrator to help calm the crowd. The associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Tirien Steinbach, took the podium to criticize the judge, saying his rulings were a “disenfranchisement” of the students’ rights. 

The judge sat for an interview with the Washington Free Beacon to discuss what happened. He called the protest a “bizarre therapy session from hell” and has called for Ms. Steinbach’s firing. 

“Don’t feel sorry for me,” he said. “I’m a life-tenured federal judge. What outrages me is that these kids are being treated like dogs by fellow students and administrators.”