IG/GETTY Imogen Wilson was nearly expelled from a student meeting for 'raising her hand'

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Imogen Wilson, vice president of academic affairs at Edinburgh University, raised her hand at a Student Association meeting to disagree when accused of “failing” disabled students by “not replying to an open letter”. But university chiefs slammed the sabbatical officer for violating the university’s safe space policy. They also warned her not to shake her head, as “gestures which denote disagreement” go against another section of the policy.

GETTY Edinburgh University, where the incident took place

Imogen said: “I raised my arms in disagreement, as we had contacted the writers of the letter and tried hard to organise a meeting. “It was for that reason that a safe space complaint was made.” The council then ludicrously held a vote on whether to expel her from the meeting.

IG Charlie Peters, a first-year at Edinburgh University, took to twitter after the incident

But the vote went in her favour, with only 18 people supporting her removal and 33 supporting her staying. She added: “I completely understand the importance of our safe space policy, and will defend it to the ground, but I did not think that was fair, and had it gone further I would have either left or argued against it.”

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