Sydney University student ‘shocked’ to be characterised in exam as ‘HIV positive’

A Sydney University student says she was ‘embarrassed’ after her likeness was used in an exam, where she was portrayed as being a fanatical conservative with HIV.

Freya Leach was horrified to discover her likeness had been used in a Sydney University law exam. Picture: Nic Walker

A Sydney University student says she has been left feeling “shocked and embarrassed” after her identity was used in a bizarre exam scenario which depicted her as a fanatical conservative who ran over a left-wing man in a Mercedes and had sex while knowing she has HIV.

Law student Freya Leach, 19, said she was confused and then horrified when she began receiving dozens of messages from her classmates who had begun their criminal law take-home final assessment and discovered it featured a “right-wing” woman named Freya.

In the colourful legal scenario set out in the assignment, Freya “puts her foot on the accelerator” and runs over a left-winger in a Mercedes to give “that chardonnay socialist a fright” and drives away.

She also has “penile-vaginal sex” with an engaged man while knowing she is “HIV positive” later in the scenario.

Ms Leach – who is active in the Young Liberal Club and the University of Sydney ​Conservative Club – said the fact so many of her fellow students had believed her to be the Freya had left her feeling singled out

“It’s beyond comprehension that one of the country’s most prestigious law schools would be reduced to such personalised attacks against its students for having different views,” she told The Australian.

“At best it’s incompetence, at worst it’s malice. I don’t know in what world it is acceptable to use students’ (identities) in exams.”

Ms Leach said she believed she was being targeted by the left on campus after she spoke out against a wave of “zoom bombing”, a form of industrial action in which students intentionally disrupt online lessons as part of a push by the National Tertiary Education Union for better pay and conditions.

’It’s beyond comprehension that one of the country’s most prestigious law schools would be reduced to such personalised attacks against its students for having different views,’ Freya Leach says.

She has also been the subject of a wave of negative and mocking social media posts being circulated by often anonymous posters on social media, which have been seen by The Australian.

“I am well-known around campus for my involvement in student politics,” she said.

“So it is almost inconceivable to think it’s an accident, given my name is not common and everyone has been able to piece it together and identify it as me.

“I think it’s really concerning that faculties think they can abuse their power to single out students for political beliefs.

“It has vilified me among the left on campus, it has tainted me as the caricature of a right-wing person driving a Mercedes, and it’s totally unfair and unacceptable.”

Ms Leach has written to the Dean of the law school to ask for an apology and an extension on completing the exam as she had been “so stressed” she hasn’t been able to bring herself to attempt to complete the assignment.

The University of Sydney denied the exam scenario was based on a person and provided an exam paper from 2014 with the same example.

“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,” a spokesperson said.

“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.”