This one is delicious because of the terrifically awesome admission of the student that she signed a waiver about the content of the class without reading it. That's right, folks. All of you with your waivers and you forms you make students sign saying they read the syllabus, they are NOT READING THOSE. And THEN, they sue you. For not warning them about stuff you wrote in the waiver. That they didn't read.Also? Fapping is disgusting. (Actually, the cynic in me suspects it was all those writing assignments, rather than the actual fapping.)
“I raised my hand and said, "I don't masturbate."For those of you who like your flava and/or summaries, here's the skinny. Really really creepy-looking prof (RRC-LP) demands that students write a fap diary. Which, hello, I would drop the damn class like a hotcake, too. However, RRC-LP did inform students that fapping and discussion of human sexuality would be required content in a Human Sexuality class, so the student's claims of being ambushed and shocked are somewhat ridiculous.
Royce’s attorney, Ken McKenna, said that the 60-year old, who was returning to school to become a social worker, was not aware that students were going to be required to discuss their own sexual experiences... Students, however, were asked to acknowlege that they were aware of the class’s graphic nature in a waiver on the first day of the course. Royce, who dropped the course after four classes, admits she did not read the waiver before she signed.(PS searching for images for this post was an education.)
the link to the original story has pics of the complainant and the prof- and these pics shed more light on them both - she is a frumpy 60 year old and he is the creepiest creepiest prof ever.
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DeleteWOW. Just, WOW. Your final thought on images made me actually look more closely. And my heart wrenches for the Brony who has put a fleshlight between his mattresses in order to fap over his pony fantasies.
ReplyDeleteThis kid will need so much practice to undo the damage he's about to do to his cock. The kid needs some Dan Savage. And time. And damn poor kid.
Oh and yes this is a great story and I'm glad you shared it but for the love of god everyone should read / listen to / watch Dan Savage!
If it's any consolation, the image is actually a photoshop of the Yoda picture. Um. Yeah.
DeleteGood advice. I always like finding a new way for students to slap my ass.
ReplyDeleteLIke most journals students are asked to write for class I'm sure they mostly just make it up anyway. Clearly nobody told her that.
ReplyDeleteWhatLadder, you don't mention that the article you link to actually says that the student's claims were unsubstantiated. So he may look like a creep, but apparently he is not. He teaches in a volatile field vulnerable to the accusations of deranged students.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I said "creepy-looking" not "creepy". Also, investigated claims notwithstanding, the student is still suing. When does it go away?
DeleteHaha just another way its awkward for non-traditional college students
ReplyDeleteNow you know why I don't insist that my students sign my syllabus. They never read it anyway. I do give them questions about the important parts (such as how I don't accept late work) in later homework, though.
ReplyDeleteStep 1: Student plagiarizes diary from internet.
ReplyDeleteStep 2: Prof submits essay to Turnitin.
Step 3: Turnitin marks essay as plagiarized.
Step 4: most awkward plagiarism disciplinary hearing ever!
Check out this slightly different account from Inside Higher Ed:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/07/02/nevada-student-files-lawsuit-about-explicitly-sexual-class-assignments
Wow, he sounds like way more of a creeper in this version.
DeleteI disagree that he sounds creepier in the second story.
DeleteThe account is a little more detailed than the one offered by the OP, but it still notes that the complaint was dismissed and that a review of course evaluations from both former and current students formed part of the investigation. The woman's claims were found to be "lacking merit."
I don't teach in the field of human sexuality, but even in my own field there are readings that might, when taken out of context, seem inappropriate. Look, for example, at the handout discussed in the Inside Higher Ed story:
Royce also felt that some of the course handouts were inappropriate. One that was provided to Inside Higher Ed, called "Prayers from the Sexes," describes a woman’s prayer as for "a man who is not a creep, one who is handsome, smart and strong" and "one who loves to listen all night long," while the man’s prayer is for "a deaf-mute nymphomaniac with huge boobs."
This could, on the one hand, seem like an inappropriate and prurient reinforcement of gender stereotypes. It could also, on the other hand, and depending on how it was handled in class, be used to stimulate a discussion about the problems of gender stereotypes in the area of human sexuality and relationships. In cases like this, the devil is often in the details, and we don't have all the details.
As an undergraduate, I took an American history class where we had to read a text in which the author argued that blacks were inferior to whites, and that the institution of slavery was beneficial to blacks because it allowed them to live like children under the watchful eye of their benevolent and caring white masters. If I were to hand this out on the street, without any context, people would probably, and understandably, be upset. But the text served a purpose in the class because it was offered within the context of a syllabus designed to raise questions about race relations and the institution of slavery in American history.
Who would want to READ their students' sex diaires? WHO?????
ReplyDeleteDepends on how many photos are included.
DeleteBB, that just made me shudder out loud.
DeleteAm I the only one who didn't know what "fapping" was?
ReplyDeleteContext, young padawan. One extracts meaning from context.
DeleteOf course, if you make a rule of that, you end up with what I call a "reader's vocabulary," in which you routinely mispronounce words and occasionally use them incorrectly because you've never looked them up.
"Fapping" is onomatopoeia. If you have a pronunciation error, maybe you are doing it wrong.
DeleteDid you mean "onomatopoeia" or "onanism"? Just wondering.
DeleteYeah, yeah, I got the meaning from the context. I just hadn't come across that particular euphemism before. In my world such things are rarely, if ever, discussed. And I'm A-okay with that.
DeleteFinnfan, I hadn't heard the term, either, but then, I am a hopelessly aged 30-something.
DeleteI'm a slightly grizzled 50-something and I heard it before, as well as a couple dozen others. I'm not sure where I learned more such terms, at church camp as a kid or in my fraternity as an undergrad...
DeleteOn second thought, after reading Inside Higher Ed: eew.
ReplyDeleteI usually feel the same after reading Inside Higher Ed.
DeleteThe sacrifices that we make for our disciplines, eh?
ReplyDeleteHow do you grade a course like this? The biggest essay passes? Two D's equal an A? Hairy palms are graded on the curve inverse to the thickness of glasses?
ReplyDeleteYou observe which student is best at placing food in animal traps. That student is the master baiter.
DeleteI could go for an obvious reply like, "It's not the size of the essay, but how you stroke the pen while writing it," but I won't.
DeleteBack when I went to college, we signed up for courses in a semester during the latter part of the semester before. We did so based on a short paragraph of information summarizing the approximate scope of the course and the instructor's last name. I can't imagine how this would work. I sign up for a class in May, come back in September - when the alternative classes that fit my major and my schedule are probably all full - and get confronted with a waiver form that says to pass the class I need to tell the professor all about my sexuality. So my options are all bad: I can complain and be a total prude and probably not get an alternative, fail the class, cheat (giving the prof an illusionary idea of my sexuality or getting busted) or tell the prof all about my sexuality. No wonder we have 14-page syllabi, last-second enrollment and teams of lawyers these days.
ReplyDeleteThere may not be academic misconduct here, though I have doubts, but there is unquestionably professional misconduct. Based, at least, on the student's testimony, the instructor was making diagnoses without proper investigation and recommending and requiring therapeutic interventions without proper diagnosis, in a hostile manner, and outside of any sort of therapeutic setting. Any therapy licensure this instructor has should be called into question.
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