12 of 13 Dalhousie dentistry students involved in scandal graduate

Twelve of the 13 male students involved in the Dalhousie University dentistry scandal picked up their diplomas at Friday's graduation ceremony.

In total, 42 dentistry students graduated.

CBC reporter Jennifer Hendersonattended the convocation and said the only unusual thing about this year's ceremony was the number of late additions to the graduation list: all 12 were male students, some of whom worked up until two days ago to complete their clinical requirements to graduate.

In December, CBC obtainedscreenshotsof the so-called Class of DDS 2015 Gentlemen's ClubFacebookgroup which includedsexually explicitposts. Thegroup discussed using chloroformon women and voted on whichwoman they'd like to have "hate" sex with. CBCbecame awareof a dozen students of the so-called Class of DDS 2015 Gentlemen's Club that were part of that group.

It was through names obtained inthosescreenshotsthat CBC was able to confirm that 12 of 13 male students involved in the group received their diplomas.

Dalhousie University president RichardFlorizoneis refusing to confirm how manystudents involved in the scandal graduated Friday.

"All I can say is when we get into particular numbers we do have concerns about a privacy breach, so we won't go there. But I would say I hope people recognize how transparent we've been," he said after the ceremony. "If you look at how we've dealt with this incident and how open we've been about the issues we face at Dal, at other universities, that we face inside of dentistry, we've been very open about the issues."

No mention of Facebook scandal during ceremony

Ryan Millet, a student in the Facebook group who showed the site to a female classmate because she was the target of a hateful online poll, did not attend the ceremony. CBC confirmed with the university that he did graduate and his name was on the convocation list that appeared earlier this month.

However, during the ceremony, the Dean of Dentistry did not call out his name.

Florizone would not say whether anyone else graduated but did not attend the ceremony or have their name read aloud.

"I don't know the particulars. Anyone who did graduate are the students who met the professional and academic standards. Students can choose whether to have their name appear in the program and they can also choose whether or not to attend the ceremony."

During the afternoon graduation ceremony, there were no mentions of theFacebookscandal.

Thirteen male students involved in the scandalhad their clinical privileges suspended for two months. Last week Dalhousie announced the results of a restorative justice proces and said it found the men involved met the "professionalism" standards needed to graduate.