By Phillip Bailey

It is difficult but necessary task of addressing the very serious issue of the four African-American female students in the Pan-African Studies department who were left behind in the Central American country of Belize.

Their two-days of desertion have wider implications on many levels, both for the University of Louisville and International Service Learning Program (ISLP), which administers study abroad trips for U of L students.

As the disturbing facts continue to pour out from the case it makes this an uglier and uglier episode by the day.

A troubling revelation is that the circumstances that led to their nightmarish abandonment never had to occur if not for the deliberate actions of the students assigned chaperone, Ms.Kerry Kohl, an ISLP representative and employee of the university.

A written statement signed by the four students was provided and repeated in testimony to the U of L Provost, Vice Provost for Diversity & Equal Opportunity, Vice President of Student Affairs and just about anyone else who’d listen.

Ms. Kohl intentionally left the students in a foreign country without any assurances about their accommodations or safety.

On the day of departure the Forgotten Four were among the first fifteen in line and had a fellow student, Jasmine Reeves, collect all their passports as instructed by an airline agent.

According to the students’ written statement, Ms. Kohl then confiscated those passports and began calling the student’s names. It would only seem fair that their names would be called in the order in which they arrived or at the top of the pile, right?

That’s what they thought, but according to their statement, Ms. Kohl would pick up their passports, open them, and deliberately put them down without calling their names.

Maybe it was just bad luck. The fact that the only black students and only Pan-African Studies students who were at the front of the line were the four and only students left behind is just a bad coincidence. Maybe racial paranoia is getting the best of everyone.

Ms. Kohl has also written an extensive version of what happened and as one would expect it contradicts the students’ version.

What both sides do agree upon is a tension present between Ms. Kohl and the Pan-African Studies students.

Ms. Kohl acknowledges in her statement what she calls “short” and “curt” attitudes from the Pan-African Studies students who kept asking questions after Ms. Kohl collected their passports.

Maybe it’s another strange coincidence that those same students she identifies as asking too many questions were those who would be unfortunately left behind.

But unless you believe the students have concocted an elaborate lie, their statement that “Ms. Kohl looked directly at the Pan African studies students and said ‘some of you are getting left’,” means someone needs to be held severely accountable.

Then, ask a question everyone who has heard this ugly story has asked: why did Ms. Kohl board the airplane?

Common sense dictates that faculty or staff traveling with students should never leave them behind. Never. Ms. Kohl easily boarded without any efforts to ensure their safety or accommodations. If not for the generosity of Continental Airlines, the student’s predicament would have been worse.

Eventually the university must take action and the voice from the students is a unanimous memorandum to terminate Ms. Kohl’s employment at the university. I’m confident that with all eyes on the investigation some proper form of justice will be served.

The university must realize that its reputation and trust with students and parents who send their children overseas is at stake.

Phillip Bailey is a senior majoring in Pan African Studies. E-mail him at opinion@louisvillecardinal.com.