Suspended student sues college over 'Hot for Teacher' paper

[Vampirate Kitsune]

link

Quote:

Mich. college student suspended over 'Hot For Teacher' journal files free-speech lawsuit

DETROIT – A man suspended from a Detroit-area university after writing about his attraction to teachers in a class journal sued the school Friday for $2.2 million and four lost credits, claiming his free-speech rights were violated.

Joseph Corlett, 57, a home builder who enrolled in college because of the weak economy, said he was an A-student in a writing class at Oakland University in Rochester until he submitted a journal in 2011 titled "Hot For Teacher," the name of a song by the rock band Van Halen.

Corlett compared his female instructor to Ginger, a sultry movie starlet character on the 1960s TV show "Gilligan's Island." He feared being distracted and said, "I'll never learn a thing." He said another teacher who was pregnant was "hot, and not just from baking the bun in her oven."

The teacher informed an Oakland dean after reading the journal for the first time. Officials said Corlett's writings violated a policy against intimidation or harassment and last year barred him for three terms, through winter 2013. The university said he must undergo counseling if he wants to return as a student.

In an interview, Corlett, who now lives in Sarasota, Fla., said he's fighting for his civil rights.

"When you get past the titillation, you've got to look into what's really going on here," he said. "It's academic freedom or no academic freedom. We're all collectively dumbed when speech is suppressed or challenged."

Oakland spokesman David Groves said the school doesn't comment on lawsuits.

Corlett said students in the English 380 class were told to write "raw things, a personal diary that maybe we wouldn't want anyone to read." He said the teacher had no objection to his earlier work, which earned an A, an essay about accidentally seeing women's breasts.

"There is no constitutional protection against being offended," Corlett said. "And while I am sympathetic to anyone's feelings, I repeatedly asked for instruction. I was repeatedly told there were no topics that were out of bounds."

Corlett was removed from the writing class by two police officers after an Oakland administrator forgot to tell him that he was barred from attending while his status as a student was under review.

Attorney Alari Adams said Corlett is seeking $2.2 million for mental anguish and the embarrassment of being kicked out of school.

[x-Garethp-x]

So, due to freedom of speech, you're allowed to basically sexually harass teachers all you want through writing and what not, and no one can touch you? HAH!

[Elraine Figarette]

x-Garethp-x

So, due to freedom of speech, you're allowed to basically sexually harass teachers all you want through writing and what not, and no one can touch you? HAH!

"...I repeatedly asked for instruction. I was repeatedly told there were no topics that were out of bounds."
While I personally find what I saw of what he wrote distasteful at best, if his teacher is going to say that there's nothing her students can't write about then she shouldn't get her undies in a bunch when something like this comes up.

[Lidke]

"It's academic freedom or no academic freedom. We're all collectively dumbed when speech is suppressed or challenged."

Yeah, we'll all be dumbed down by not hearing about your sexualized comparison of a teacher.


Edit:
Elraine Figarette, some things should go without saying and it's terrible to think the teacher must say it.

[Whispyre]

X

It's not freedom of speech when your gonna be a dirty perv and harass teachers. You go to college to learn! Not flirt with the teachers who you think are hot.

I seriously hope this guy does not win, he doesn't deserve one penny for basically writing a pervy journal to give to the teachers.

[Elraine Figarette]

Lidke

"It's academic freedom or no academic freedom. We're all collectively dumbed when speech is suppressed or challenged."

Yeah, we'll all be dumbed down by not hearing about your sexualized comparison of a teacher.


Edit:
Elraine Figarette, some things should go without saying and it's terrible to think the teacher must say it.

"Corlett said students in the English 380 class were told to write "raw things, a personal diary that maybe we wouldn't want anyone to read." He said the teacher had no objection to his earlier work, which earned an A, an essay about accidentally seeing women's breasts."

This is a high-level university course, and she asked specifically for things that the students wouldn't want anyone to read. The guy repeatedly asked if anything was off-limits, and she said nothing was off-limits. It's not his fault that he gave her more than she could handle when she gave him the literary/scholarly equivalent of "Come at me, bro!"

[Lidke]

And now you are saying she deserved it?

Elraine Figarette

Lidke

"It's academic freedom or no academic freedom. We're all collectively dumbed when speech is suppressed or challenged."

Yeah, we'll all be dumbed down by not hearing about your sexualized comparison of a teacher.


Edit:
Elraine Figarette, some things should go without saying and it's terrible to think the teacher must say it.

"Corlett said students in the English 380 class were told to write "raw things, a personal diary that maybe we wouldn't want anyone to read." He said the teacher had no objection to his earlier work, which earned an A, an essay about accidentally seeing women's breasts."

This is a high-level university course, and she asked specifically for things that the students wouldn't want anyone to read. The guy repeatedly asked if anything was off-limits, and she said nothing was off-limits. It's not his fault that he gave her more than she could handle when she gave him the literary/scholarly equivalent of "Come at me, bro!"

[Elraine Figarette]

Lidke

And now you are saying she deserved it?

Elraine Figarette

Lidke

"It's academic freedom or no academic freedom. We're all collectively dumbed when speech is suppressed or challenged."

Yeah, we'll all be dumbed down by not hearing about your sexualized comparison of a teacher.


Edit:
Elraine Figarette, some things should go without saying and it's terrible to think the teacher must say it.

"Corlett said students in the English 380 class were told to write "raw things, a personal diary that maybe we wouldn't want anyone to read." He said the teacher had no objection to his earlier work, which earned an A, an essay about accidentally seeing women's breasts."

This is a high-level university course, and she asked specifically for things that the students wouldn't want anyone to read. The guy repeatedly asked if anything was off-limits, and she said nothing was off-limits. It's not his fault that he gave her more than she could handle when she gave him the literary/scholarly equivalent of "Come at me, bro!"

I'm saying she shouldn't say there are no limits and then turn around and say an assignment has exceeded the limit. There was no limit given. If she has limits, she should say what they are upfront.

[x-Garethp-x]

Elraine Figarette

x-Garethp-x

So, due to freedom of speech, you're allowed to basically sexually harass teachers all you want through writing and what not, and no one can touch you? HAH!

"...I repeatedly asked for instruction. I was repeatedly told there were no topics that were out of bounds."
While I personally find what I saw of what he wrote distasteful at best, if his teacher is going to say that there's nothing her students can't write about then she shouldn't get her undies in a bunch when something like this comes up.

There's a difference between literally no topics being off bounds, and saying there are no topics off bounds, but expecting students to use common sense to not overstep social boundaries. One of which is sexually harassing your lecturer

[PikachuBaller]

He did nothing wrong whatsoever.
From what I see, he was not in the wrong, and should not have been kicked out of class.
Also, the fact that saying someone is hot, is harassment, is utterly ridiculous.

[Keltoi Samurai]

x-Garethp-x

So, due to freedom of speech, you're allowed to basically sexually harass teachers all you want through writing and what not, and no one can touch you? HAH!

more like, under freedom of speech, if someone asks for your raw innermost thoughts, repeatedly telling you "no subject is off-limits," it is then hypocritical to, after reading what you asked them to write, you respond "except that one. officers, please escort this man out"

[Keltoi Samurai]

Jin Love

X

It's not freedom of speech when your gonna be a dirty perv and harass teachers. You go to college to learn! Not flirt with the teachers who you think are hot.

I seriously hope this guy does not win, he doesn't deserve one penny for basically writing a pervy journal to give to the teachers.

his teacher asked him to write down his thoughts, insisted no topic was off-limits, then decided, once it was already turned in, that this one topic was.

rule-of-thumb: don't ask for someone's "raw" thoughts, or ask to read their "personal diary that maybe we wouldn't want anyone to read," unless you're OK with reading potentially pervy thoughts.

really, by the wording of the assignment, and then the reaction to it, this comes off as a case of demanding to know someone's thoughts, followed by punishing them for thinking unapproved things.

[Keltoi Samurai]

x-Garethp-x

Elraine Figarette

x-Garethp-x

So, due to freedom of speech, you're allowed to basically sexually harass teachers all you want through writing and what not, and no one can touch you? HAH!

"...I repeatedly asked for instruction. I was repeatedly told there were no topics that were out of bounds."
While I personally find what I saw of what he wrote distasteful at best, if his teacher is going to say that there's nothing her students can't write about then she shouldn't get her undies in a bunch when something like this comes up.

There's a difference between literally no topics being off bounds, and saying there are no topics off bounds, but expecting students to use common sense to not overstep social boundaries. One of which is sexually harassing your lecturer

in short, it was a case of "do what I mean, not what I say" and shame on him for not knowing she meant something other than what she said?

[Whispyre]

Keltoi Samurai

Jin Love

X

It's not freedom of speech when your gonna be a dirty perv and harass teachers. You go to college to learn! Not flirt with the teachers who you think are hot.

I seriously hope this guy does not win, he doesn't deserve one penny for basically writing a pervy journal to give to the teachers.

his teacher asked him to write down his thoughts, insisted no topic was off-limits, then decided, once it was already turned in, that this one topic was.

rule-of-thumb: don't ask for someone's "raw" thoughts, or ask to read their "personal diary that maybe we wouldn't want anyone to read," unless you're OK with reading potentially pervy thoughts.

really, by the wording of the assignment, and then the reaction to it, this comes off as a case of demanding to know someone's thoughts, followed by punishing them for thinking unapproved things.

Still doesn't mean that he should forget all common sense, be an a** and write a paper that will harass them. Yea he was told to write about anything but there is such thing as common courtesy and not going to the extreme like he did in his case.

[Keltoi Samurai]

Jin Love

Keltoi Samurai

Jin Love

X

It's not freedom of speech when your gonna be a dirty perv and harass teachers. You go to college to learn! Not flirt with the teachers who you think are hot.

I seriously hope this guy does not win, he doesn't deserve one penny for basically writing a pervy journal to give to the teachers.

his teacher asked him to write down his thoughts, insisted no topic was off-limits, then decided, once it was already turned in, that this one topic was.

rule-of-thumb: don't ask for someone's "raw" thoughts, or ask to read their "personal diary that maybe we wouldn't want anyone to read," unless you're OK with reading potentially pervy thoughts.

really, by the wording of the assignment, and then the reaction to it, this comes off as a case of demanding to know someone's thoughts, followed by punishing them for thinking unapproved things.

Still doesn't mean that he should forget all common sense, be an a** and write a paper that will harass them. Yea he was told to write about anything but there is such thing as common courtesy and not going to the extreme like he did in his case.

raw, private thoughts without limits were specifically what she requested.

raw, private thoughts without limits is what she was given.

when you request something of someone, to then turn around and punish someone for delivering it is a problem.

really, though, I agree with you somewhat. he was an idiot for following the assignment. he should have made something up, or just refused to do the assignment. really, an assignment like that stinks of "trap" from a mile away, and he should have anticipated that she automatically assumed that when she asked for raw, unfettered and most secret thoughts, she meant "give me the G-rated version, without anything I might find offensive," and that anybody who didn't pick up on that would immediately be removed from the school for failure to comply with school policies on approved thoughts and fantasies.

specifically, his cardinal sin wasn't that he had these thoughts, or even that he wrote them down, so much as it was that he forgot Rule Number 1 of dealing with College Liberals: never take anything they say at face value, no matter how many times they assure you they actually meant what they said.