Miguel Santibanez
Mrs. Schaff
English 12
2/28/14
Misconduct of a professor Professor Laurence Thomas at Syracuse had informed his students that if he caught any one of them texting or any other kind of misconduct; that he would leave the classroom. With that said, one of the students that sat in the front row of the classroom was caught texting. Once the professor saw, he immediately walked out of the classroom without a word said. Later on emailing his students, explaining to some extend why he left as well as leaving some comments that students found controversial. It was wrong of the professor to leave the classroom and cancel classes just because of some small issue. In the professor’s email that he sent to his students, he stated that the student whom sent the text message in class was Cuban. And that two other Latino students that had started playing tic-tac-toe in class the year before. By stating the fact that in both incidents where he has walked out on the class, it has been because of Latino students. This shows that the professor might have a bias feel towards Latino students. Racism is being showed against a certain race; even though he states that he is a “minority scholar himself”. Thomas also says that he is both black and Jewish although he does “not have the Jewish look”. There was no reason for the professor to state that the students are Latinos, unless he has a racial issue towards them. Thomas could have handled the issue in a much different way. He had no reason to leave the class immediately, just because of one student. There needs to be some thought in this before making any action, he needs to realize that there are a lot of other students that have followed the rules. Not only that but they have paid for the class, which in most cases the payments are not very cheap. Gerald Amanda, the author or Coping with the Disruptive College Student: A Practical Model and Coping with Misconduct in the College Classroom: A Practical Model, Said that what he did is “a horrible strategy”, “Unreasonable”, and “It’s not legitimate”. Amanda says that the best way to handle this situation is to “Tell a student to leave, it may not be pleasant, but it’s fair. On the other hand the professor has a reason to leave in the case that he is the authority, therefore it is his own rules to obey by. He explains how asking a student to simply leave has no effect, but leaving will make a statement. Thomas warns his students about his policies at the beginning of the course. Thomas policy applies from anything like text messaging to reading a newspaper. He wants to be shown respect for all his hard work that he puts into his teaching, as well in that case he will show respect back to the students. Professor Thomas might have authority, but what he did is not acceptable. He must realize that there are about four hundred students in the course. It is a waste of money for the rest of the students who were paying attention in class, when they had no involvement in the actions of one or two students. One student in particular said “We the students are the consumers, the consumers, the ones who make the choice everyday to pay attention in class or not”. The student also makes a statement about how he must pay around $30,000 to go there, in which the professor will get paid whether a student is texting or not. This student highlights how it is “selfish” of the professor to waste the students’ time and money. The professor should have not of left the classroom despite the fact, of one students’ minuscule action. The students have paid to be in the class to learn, therefore the professor walking out on the because of just one student is not only a waste of time but also money. There are much better methods to handle this situation. The professors’ actions are unacceptable as well as selfish. He should be fired from his job for this, it was not a very logic thing that he did. Even from all his experience to say the least, he must have a better way of handling these types of situations. The students need justice, what if the happens all over again? It would be unfair to them, concluding in waste of time and loss of money for the rest of the students.