. I hate having to get out there and break my back. I am, after all, an academic. I like tea and ottomans and cats.Anyway, this not about that.
.He sits up front, is intense at all times, speaks loudly, ignores the fact that other people fill the room, and - I hate to confess - makes me uneasy.
He said to the entire class yesterday. "I'm getting an A in here. Nothing is stopping me from getting an A."
My first thought was, "You sure are. I'm not taking a chance on you, my shaved head young friend."
I am a little afraid of him.
Well, you can do like my colleagues and make a sealed note about your impressions of him and stick it on the cork board (I have 4 of these from various colleagues on my corkboard). My one colleague started this trend a few semesters ago, when he said "if anything happens to me, this is the guy who did it".
ReplyDeleteHowever, in this case, maybe you can take some more preventative action? Do you have a counselling service on campus? Someone who deals with student mental health? Maybe go talk to them and ask for advice.
I remember waking up in the middle of the night at a B&B a week after returning from somewhere over there, wondering which side of the bed I stowed my gear under because I'd heard incoming sirens.
ReplyDeleteCompletely calmly, like it was the most natural thing in the world. And I had a very tame life there.
Terry, the good news (for you) is he's far more likely to kill himself (or drink himself to death) than to hurt you.
What resources does the school offer entering vets? Mine has a a 1-credit veterans transition class they recommend. On your end, you might see if there are faculty with recent service or grad students you could compare notes with and see what might be "normal" or part of adjusting, and what might be bad behavior that just needs fixin'.
Another memory of mine is taking communion from a preacher who was the only one in the room not wearing a gun.
I don't know where you teach, Terry, but I wouldn't wait until something happened. Document everything and share it--with public safety, with student counseling services, with your chair, with the dean, with your union if you have one.
ReplyDeleteListen to that inner voice, Terry, and absolutely make sure people know that this guy has said what he's said. If this were my student, I would immediately think about my safety and the safety of the other students in my class, and I would not hesitate to talk to someone.
Also, this guy may need (and perhaps even welcome) real help.
And on a completely unrelated note, you made me laugh. "I am, after all, an academic. I like tea and ottomans and cats." Describes me pretty well.
Dang. That IS unsettling. Sounds like he's rather used to asserting himself on the streets of Kandahar, armed up to his teeth and kicking ass. WhatLadder's idea is a good one for starters, but also, reporting this behaviour (CDN spelling) to whatever campus services is also a good idea...like counselling and security--just in case others are also contributing to a file and then hopefully, some intervention can happen if need be.
ReplyDeleteAlan's also quite right...odds are, he's not going to shoot you in the face if you give him a B.
Hopefully there are resources for those who have served. By no means do I suggest that vets are dangerous as a rule. I believe they ought to be afforded every possible service to help them re-tool and get back to a normal life. (Canada's got plenty of these folks coming back from Afghanastan too and we really have to give them their due.)
In addition to WhatLadder's suggestion, I would also recommend that you talk with your department chair and / or your dean. Faculty are often the first ones to detect when a student needs help. This is what I would do (and have done in the past).
ReplyDeleteBTW...I like cats too.
ReplyDeleteI'll just add to what others have said--if you have a VA person on campus in student services, let that person know. I have had several of these students in the past 7 years; most are OK, quiet, keep to themselves, speak when encouraged to do so. Some get really into the material and if another student disagrees, the PTSD can kick in and escalate a situation to DEFCON4.
ReplyDeleteThis happened to me last spring when a student took exception to my gentle criticism of Thoreau's _Walden_. He took Thoreau at his word, said it was like the Bible to him...when other students tried to tell him to calm down, he got red and I rather hastily moved us away from the topic. Later he came to my office and expressed his contrition about arguing with me, and told me that his PTSD had been worse lately. I had had this student in a different class, and felt comfortable talking to him, but I did tell him that if he wasn't seeing a counselor, he needed to start because he was making the other students uncomfortable. Later in the semester I was visited by two other profs (both male) who were worried about his behavior, and wanted to warn me.
The happy ending is that he got help, and has gone on to Big U up the road to major in English. He emails me from time to time to let me know how things are going.
Having shared all of this, I would say that your best defense is a good offense. Let student services know. Ask to speak to him outside of class, and try to get him to talk to you...about anything, not just class. It's likely that he's having some trouble adjusting to being back in the World, and might welcome some help.
Good luck.
BTW, I love cats--have 3 of them. Tea and ottomans also score high on my list of things I like.
Unsettling, yes, but frequently, especially with soldiers returning from war, they are socially unaware of their place. Instead of reporting the person and having them removed or whatever, a well-placed and frank discussion will solve the problem.
ReplyDeleteI'm growing worried that the Tuscon shooting will result in locking up people before they commit any crimes rather than gun restriction legislation. What a fracken country.
What would happen if he just disappeared one day? Maybe just coincidentally the same day you poured concrete for your new back porch? Just a thought. You could be the first to tell the local TV news people, "I loved him like a son. He served valiantly. He was such an enthusiastic student. He will be missed."
ReplyDeleteAcademic Monkey, even if Terry talks to this student individually, Terry should still document every exchange as well as everything that makes him uncomfortable. Where I teach, talking to my chair and/or public safety will not get this student removed, necessarily--but it will document my exchanges with challenging students should I need such documentation in the future.
ReplyDelete@Southern Bubba. Ph.D.
ReplyDeleteActually, if you tried to bury him under concrete you would still smell the body decomposing; "Mythbusters" tried to do that with pig caracses in their "Jimmy Hoffa Myths" show. The funk was still raunchy even under two feet of cement.
Where I work the level of Chair isn't high enough to deal with this - the appropriate person to contact would be the Associate Dean of the faculty associated with all things student-related - in my experience, most universities have a similar structure [Associate Dean (students), Associate Dean (academics), Associate Dean (research)], also repeated at the Vice-President/Principal level.
ReplyDeletePS I don't care for cats.
One of my students with ptsd, would duck under the desk at any loud noise. He once got up during class, put his hand to the gun that had once been at his side, and ran out of the room. He ran back in after 5 minutes and told me all is clear; the loud noise was just the cleaning crew. Well, thank goodness he checked! We all did some deep breathing exercises at the beginning of every class.
ReplyDeleteI'd be scared, too, and tempted to just survive the semester and give him the A. But, like others, I think that the truly appropriate approach, for his sake as well as others', would be to seek out some help, if at all possible from somebody with some experience and/or expertise with military culture and/or the experiences of returning veterans, and some ability to translate academic culture for military types. If nothing else, if he was a reasonably successful soldier, somebody ought to be able to get through to him by explaining the command structure of the classroom, as well as, perhaps, some of the social expectations, and where grades come from (by declaring that he, not you, decides whether he will get an A, he's potentially undermining your authority; that's something a well-trained soldier should be able to grasp, and defer to -- at least outwardly).
ReplyDeleteHe may have had a less-then-fully-functional personality to begin with, but I have to wonder whether that intensity isn't his way of trying to keep demons at bay. Some sort of mentor with whom he could talk, and who perhaps could help you talk to him, might do him a great deal of good, and let him take full advantage of the college experience he has certainly earned.
@Prof B. Chrome: DEFCON states run from 5, least severe, to 1, most severe. DEFCON 4 is in fact the second least dangerous condition to be in. Signed, your annoying friendly editor.
ReplyDeleteOthers have suggested resources (focused on either general behavior or tailored to veterans returning to the classroom). All reasonable to explore...
ReplyDeleteDr. Cranky made some assumptions about the nature of his service that may or not be accurate. You don't say (and I'm not asking) what course this is. Some courses don't lend themselves to the discourse of student experiences (composition? yeah...college algebra or economics...not so much). if yours does...it may be worth exploring in class. If yours doesn't, it may be worth exploring in a separate conversation with him.
Unless you're at a school with a large ROTC program or in a region of high unemployment that may yield in a lots of students with reserve or National Guard commitments, most folks have limited contact with veterans; only about 10% of the current US population has served.
Service in a modern hostile area spans a wide variety of experiences...but the threats of IEDs and suicide bombers inside the wire have a way of sharing the strain even among folks who don't venture outside the wire.
I'm not minimizing the areas of concern (which may well have been areas of concern for his military leadership as well), especially regarding the guns on campus commentary.
Diversity takes many forms. Those making the transition from military to academic achievement are part of that fabric.
I would feel pretty nervous if I were in your shoes too, Terry. I think this fellow is probably having a hard time reintegrating and maybe had some issues before he served that weren't helped by his experiences over there. The advice to document and see if anyone in student services can provide advice is good, I think.
ReplyDeleteKatharine said...
One of my students with ptsd, would duck under the desk at any loud noise. He once got up during class, put his hand to the gun that had once been at his side, and ran out of the room. He ran back in after 5 minutes and told me all is clear; the loud noise was just the cleaning crew.
Reading that made me sad.
There is a very good This American Life episode called "The Devil In Me" that features a segment a guy who came back from Iraq and how his PTSD affected his experience in college. In this person's case, he worked hard to overcome it and was pretty successful, but it was a hard process. Definitely worth a listen.