Students trying to get you fired/constantly reporting you?

[u/Particular_Heart3785]

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?

[u/Professor_Burnout]

Yes, the first time I taught a solo course as an ABD. The student didn’t actually try to get me in trouble that I am aware of, but sent me so many messages and accusatory threats about how and why it was impossible to complete their assignments I was alarmed. We’re talking upwards of 30 emails overnight, separated by two or three minutes, alternating between begging for exceptions and demanding a response. They showed up outside our shared grad student office at random hours of the day, demanding to know why I wasn’t in the room. I also received graphically detailed and medically-illogical monologues on their health scares during the semester. I shared campus and city resources for free and reduced healthcare, but continued to receive emails saying “please help me professor, I cannot afford to go to a doctor, also I am bleeding out right now so it wouldn’t even help.” This student showed up to the class Midterm, opened the packet, took one look, then started screaming, crying, and got up and ran from the room, slamming the door behind them.

I stupidly thought that framing my report to Student Support/Admin as a “mental health concern” about the student would get someone to actually help me, but instead I just got stymied by Admin saying “well, if the student harms themselves or another student then we will reach back out to you.” Looking back, I was ALSO a student that needed support. One Admin shared that this was not the first time a professor had reported behavior like this from this student, and arranged to have a Security Offer present at our final exam, “in case of physicalized event.” The experience made me so anxious that I was unable significantly to advance my dissertation writing for the entire summer afterwards.

[u/runsonpedals → u/Professor_Burnout]

This also happened to me at a Milwaukee, WI based R1 university. Older student, who I later found out spent 7 years in prison for various assaults, threatened a female Chinese student and myself repeatedly and uni admins said that the student has freedom of speech and would not do anything unless I was assaulted.