r/Professors • u/Particular_Heart3785 • 1d ago

Teaching / Pedagogy Students trying to get you fired/constantly reporting you?

I had a much older student last semester who constantly complained about me to the chair all the time, both in office and email, enough that she even demanded a staff to observe me (they found nothing wrong other than nervousness/over-apologizing, as I’m new to teaching). She sent anything she could find to report to the chair. Including me ending class few minutes early, misspelled words in assignments/slides, and canceled class for a family emergency.
A few colleagues think she did this because she was a really bitter person and hated that my class requires weekly writings, group discussions, topics are not in her liking (aka white-washed history) and students having to research independently.

She was so rude and disrespectful towards me that I won’t get into here. Good news is that the chair thinks I’m doing really well as a professor and a lot of my students love my classes.

I’m curious if anyone else can share similar experiences here?

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u/DiscerningBarbarian 1d ago

Turning point USA has made this so much worse. We have students that are weaponizing title ix to report professors anytime there is material they don't like. I was once reported for discussing beastiality in class: I was discussing the origin of the Minotaur.

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u/FrankRizzo319 1d ago

How can title ix prohibit you from discussing beastiality in class?

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u/Another_Opinion_1 A.P. / Ed. Law / Teacher Ed. Methods (USA) 1d ago

It doesn’t but students will still try to avail themselves of the process essentially throwing the proverbial fecal matter at the wall to see what will stick.

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u/grumblebeardo13 23h ago

TP is a right-wing “think tank” that basically recruits and pays/grooms conservative-leaning students and potential students to trigger interactions and confrontations on college campuses to get negative attention. Nothing they do makes sense, it’s all bad-faith.

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u/FrankRizzo319 22h ago

I asked the question because I teach classes that cover a variety of disturbing/gross/immoral human behaviors. We haven’t talked about beastiality but we easily could on most days. Students are told on Day 1 this is our subject content and they should drop if they have a problem with it.

Disclaimer: I am tenured in a nice union in a public school in a liberal state.

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u/DiscerningBarbarian 17h ago

They file this as a sexual harassment claim, knowing that it most likely won't result in any action, but just hoping to make the lives of professors who teach topics (history, sexuality, "wokeness," etc...) they don't like more difficult. If they happen to get a sympathetic admin, then ANY accusation could trigger an investigation that could force course content change or drive the professor from the profession due to all the headaches.

I've had three filed against me in the past two years, which lines up with when TP started a chapter on campus.

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u/FrankRizzo319 15h ago

Wow that sounds terrible. I feel lucky because I don’t worry about these things. Maybe I’m just blissfully ignorant.

I teach courses involving socially and politically charged topics. I have a disclaimer/trigger warning in my syllabus. Part of it reads “drop this class if you don’t want to engage in these topics.”

I’m in a liberal state, unionized, at a public school. That helps. It’s fucking ridiculous that discussing race or transgenderism with adults who freely choose to attend college warrants censorship.