University of Virginia Library

MR. ROBERT PARRISH, SR. PRESENT

Mr. Robert Parrish was called by Mr. Scott as a witness. Mr. Parrish said that on April
27th, the day after letters of suspension and expulsion had been delivered, he had come from
Richmond and accompanied a group of disciplined students, their kinsmen and attorneys in a
visit to Mr. Fletcher. Mr. John C. Parker, brother of Mr. Alexander Parker, had by prearrangement
acted as spokesman for the group, but Mr. Valentine and others had assisted in
the questioning. During this questioning Mr. Fletcher had made two admissions which had
seemed, to Mr. Parrish, to be damaging. When asked if he had kept the students warned
during the many interviews of April 6th-26th about the probability of University discipline,
Mr. Fletcher had at one point used the expression, "I can't say I warned each man". When
asked by Mr. Valentine whether the disciplined students might not have supposed in the interviews
that they were cooperating for the good of the University (preventing court action or
publicity) and were not on trial themselves at all, Mr. Fletcher had admitted that "That was
a possible construction by them."