This much about Lindsay Shepherd is impressive: the size of the bubble of entitlement that surrounds her.

She feels entitled as a 23-year-old to a job in academia before even graduating while other masters in arts graduates toil without jobs and in obscurity.

She feels entitled to being shielded from pushback after belittling her peers and seniors.

She feels entitled to millions of dollars from a lawsuit all the while building a national brand.

Shepherd is the Wilfrid Laurier student who in November secretly recorded a disciplining session with her professors who accused her of crossing a line in her duties as a teaching assistant. She tearfully pushed back, released the recording to media, where she was propelled by mostly older white journalists, and found support among so-called free speechers, who hailed her as a hero, a resister of the perceived degradation of higher learning.

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This week, Shepherd sued her university for $3.6 million. Her statement of claim, untested in court, alleges harassment, intentional infliction of nervous shock, negligence and constructive dismissal. The suit claims “attacks” on her “have rendered her unemployable in academia resulting in her abandoning her previous ambitions of obtaining her PhD or even teaching at a university as a masters graduate.”

There’s something chicken and egg-ish about this claim. Is Shepherd unemployable in academia because she won’t do her PhD or is she not doing a PhD because she’s unemployable?

One can argue about whether Shepherd’s introduction of gender-neutral pronouns in a class on technical writing and grammar, which then led to at least one student commenting about the intelligence of trans folks, is the duty of a teaching assistant.

One can argue about how the disciplinary hearing was conducted. Most commenters agree that at least some of the content was problematic, and those from Laurier apologized then, an apology that Shepherd has now dismissed in her lawsuit.

One can also argue about the ethics of secretly taping a conversation and releasing it to media.

But at least a few of Shepherd’s actions offer clear-cut insights.

Shepherd is the poorly informed student who thinks it’s not only OK to debate trans existence in class but also whether Canada should continue to be open to immigrants. On this score, she wanted students to hear from an Islamophobic, white supremacist xenophobe whose expertise and credentials on this subject are exactly zero.

Shepherd is the wide-eyed ingénue touted as the star attraction at an event sponsored by the far-right Rebel media.

Shepherd is the Wilfrid Laurier teaching assistant who within weeks of finding fame bashed her school unabashedly, calling it a “mental institution” because professors cancelled classes out of safety concerns over a free speech rally.

Shepherd is the out of control student who created a chill on campus after tweeting a list of professors to avoid to her now considerable following.

Shepherd is the media figure who also said: “For anyone who is going to be hiring a grad from WLU’s M.A. Communication Studies or M.A. Cultural Analysis & Social Theory program (her program): be very, very careful that you are not hiring an authoritarian ideologue with no original thoughts. These programs breed them.”

That is the context in which she claims harassment.

“Imagine 2 sociology profs use your M.A. proposal presentation to tell you their personal opinions on Faith Goldy and ask you snidely if you believe flat earth theory should be taught by geography depts, rather than giving constructive feedback like they did for the other students,” she tweeted Thursday.

Meanwhile, people who don’t get jobs in academia for no fault of their own but because they’re pre-judged as inadequate for the colour of their skin or their accents or their sexual fluidity don’t sue. Can’t sue. It’s unaffordable. This begs the question, how does this “unemployable” grad student afford the lawsuit?

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Was a lawsuit the only option considered? It’s possible the lawsuit could just be a play for publicity. But if we assume it is sincere, were internal systems of redress considered first? Has Shepherd also considered that all she’s experiencing is pushback to her own cruel mocking of her peers?

A Rebel media promo quotes her saying “people can think for themselves and come to their conclusions.” Of course they can. It doesn’t mean every thought or conclusion is rational or fact-based or deserves a platform at an institution of learning.

Learning a few hard lessons along the way in life is called growing up, and considering the experiences of those whose shoes we never need walk in is part of that learning. In this case, it looks like that is not happening.