Dear Mr. Johnston,

    It has come to my parties attention that assignment “Internship Release Form” is a graded assignment that impacts my parties grade. My party would like to inform you with the legality of the “Internship Release Form”. The  ‘18 U.S. Code § 1589. Forced labor’ (4) “by means of any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause the person to believe that, if that person did not perform such labor or services, that person or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint…”(Cornell Law School). Serious harm is defined by Cornell Law School as “(2)The term “serious harm” means any harm, whether physical or nonphysical, including psychological, financial, or reputational harm, that is sufficiently serious, under all the surrounding circumstances, to compel a reasonable person of the same background and in the same circumstances to perform or to continue performing labor or services in order to avoid incurring that harm.”. The Cornell Law School definition states “nonphysical” and “reputational harm”. According to USLEGAL internship is defined as “An internship is a type of work experience for entry-level job-seekers. Internships involve working in your expected career field…”. The USLEGAL defines it as a “...type of work experience…”. This means my party will be working in a workplace environment. If my party does not submit to this document and participate in the labor my party will suffer reputational harm caused solely by Mr. Johnston.  My party would like to clearly state, we have no issue with doing classwork and receiving the just grade; however when we are being forced into legally binding work that threatens our reputation if we do not participate. We will threaten legal action if this situation is not resolved.

Sincerely,

James Singewald


“18 U.S. Code § 1589 - Forced Labor.” LII / Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute, www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1589.

US Legal, Inc. “Internship Law and Legal Definition.” Fraud Law and Legal Definition | USLegal, Inc., definitions.uslegal.com/i/internship/.

LII / Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute, www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/uscode.php?width=840&height=800&iframe=true&def_id=18-USC-908443408-986701303&term_occur=3&term_src=title%3A18%3Apart%3AI%3Achapter%3A77%3Asection%3A1589.