Sydney University student claims law exam ‘mocked’ her political views

Freya Leach said memes about her name being used in the exam had already begun to circulate among her peers. Photo / Supplied

A University of Sydney student claims she was unfairly targeted in a law exam that sees a character with her first name kill a man, infect another with HIV and get thrown out of a window.

Freya Leach, 19, said she and her second-year criminal law cohort were given a fictional scenario as part of an end of semester test in which a character — a uni student named “Freya” — murders one of her left-leaning peers.

The namesake character also deliberately infects a sexual partner with HIV.

Ms Leach, who is a member of the Conservative Club and the Young Liberals, has accused the faculty of mocking her political views in the essay question, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Another character made up for the test was “Daniel”, who tells another student named “Adam” to “f**k off you woke pr**k”.

“Unfortunately for Adam, however, he has not realised that a sporty-looking Mercedes car is approaching rapidly from the right. By a total coincidence, the car is driven by Daniel’s friend, Freya,” the scenario reads.

“(Adam) is clipped by Freya’s car one metre from the centre of the road. He falls, smashes his head on the ground and dies instantly. As Freya speeds away from the scene, she hears her phone beep. It is a text message from Daniel, which reads simply ‘Great job ;-) One less illiberal liberal!!!!’”

The scenario adds that the character Freya has unprotected sex with Daniel without mentioning she has HIV.

She then gets into a fight with another woman before being thrown out of a window to her death.

The students were asked to assess the criminal liability of the characters in the question.

The paper, which is due back on Sunday, includes characters with the same first names of four other students on her course, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Ms Leach said she was contacted by 20 students on her course who believed the Freya in the exam was based on her.

“The problem question uses my name and characterises me as a right-wing person who kills a left-wing person. It then recounts a sex scene in graphic detail and says I am HIV positive,” she said in a letter of complaint.

“After which point, I am thrown out of a window.

“Memes have already started to circulate, making fun of my character in the problem question and depicting me as having HIV. This exam has made me feel unsafe to hold a diverse viewpoint at the University of Sydney Law School.”

She has called on the faculty to apologise, claiming the law school has been “incompetent at best, malicious at worst”.

The University of Sydney said the name match-up was “entirely” a coincidence.

“This afternoon we received a complaint about one of our law assessments and have now responded directly to the student,” that statement said.

“We explained to the student that the fictional character in the exam scenario was in no way meant to reference or depict a real-life person, and the use of any first names shared by students was entirely a coincidence.

“In fact, the same name was also used in an exam drafted by the same academic in an assessment and class questions list in previous years.”

However, the university did apologise “for any offence or distress caused” and will change exams in future to avoid names of current students being used,