In the United States, colleges and universities are institutions wherein students are exposed to new ideas, diverse people, and a variety of different opinions in order to prepare themselves to enter the world as mature, educated and reasonable adults, or at least one would hope. The idea that trigger warnings should be provided throughout one’s higher education has been highly debated in both the media and on campuses throughout the country and is revolutionizing the way professors, students, and administrators communicate. Some see this rise in trigger warnings as creating a necessary safe-space for growing minds, while others see it as preventing students from being exposed to different viewpoints and giving them an excuse to avoid disagreement.
Trigger warnings first originated on online forums where women discussed their experiences with sexual assault. The thought was that sexual assault is such a traumatic event and that trigger warnings would serve to prevent victims from reliving their own experiences and suffering from symptoms of PTSD. In recent years, however, trigger warnings have left the realm of online sexual assault forums and have made their way onto college campuses covering a variety of triggering topics including misogyny, drunk driving, rape, violence, suicide, self-harm, homophobia, drug use, needles, kidnapping, and swearing.
Kate Manne, assistant professor of philosophy at Cornell University, believes that trigger warnings can be useful in the university setting as long as they are used correctly. In her article for the New York Times, she explains that trigger warnings are not intended to allow students to avoid assignments but to help them to “better manage their reactions” to harsh material. Students who do need these warning to avoid symptoms of PTSD will greatly benefit from them while students who do not need them will not be inconvenienced at all.
While Manne’s essay has garnered support since its publication, many others still strongly disagree. In her article The Trouble With Teaching Rape Law, Jeannie Suk, a professor of law at Harvard Law school outlines the difficulties of teaching rape law while being pressured to be sensitive to students’ trauma. Some students have requested that rape law be left out of exams “for fear that the material would cause them to perform less well”. They have also requested that the word “violate” be left out of classroom discussions because the word itself is triggering; this includes phrases such as “Does this conduct violate the law?”
The problem here is clear: these students will graduate with their law degree and have absolutely no idea how to handle a rape case. This is comparable to a student studying to be a surgeon claiming they cannot view images of blood and human bodies, it is ridiculous. The world is not a safe space, so classrooms shouldn’t be either.
Trigger warnings are doing absolutely nothing to improve the mental health of students. Instead of teaching them how to properly deal with their trauma and react to triggering topics in a healthy way, trigger warnings are encouraging students to avoid their problems altogether. The solution to the growing problem of mental health on college campuses is not avoidance, but treatment.
Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt explain this in depth in their popular article titled The Coddling of the American Mind. Triggering warnings are a temporary fix only provided on college campuses, but treating trauma would be a long-lasting solution for sufferers of PTSD. Lukianoff and Haidt suggest that treating college students with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) would be a cost-efficient and effective option. CBT would teach students how to deal with their trauma on a long-term basis during and after college rather than just avoiding it like trigger warnings encourage.
Providing trigger warnings on college campuses do more harm than good for students. While trying to receive a wholesome, well-rounded education and enter the workforce as strong, able-minded people, they are being protected from things that they would never be protected from in the real world. Trigger warnings are a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Stop avoiding trauma and get treatment.
