Spring Break
Student's fiction story concerns professor
Kevin Rand
Issue date: 5/15/07 Section: News
"He's blunt, so I guess this (student) in our class took it harshly," Woods said.
She said she didn't think the student was a danger to the class or the professor.
"I think (the student) was angry at the teacher," she said. "(The student) used the story to say something."
The fictional story contains details regarding the unusual manner in which a vampire takes its victims' lives. The student wrote, "Immediate death comes to the creatures or humans whose recent feces were consumed by these vampires."
The story ends when the vampire reveals, "I killed him," referring to the fictionalized English professor.
Gyasi said she and the student were still attending the class.
"(The student) is a regular kid. (The student) sits in the front," she said. " … If I felt a danger, then I wouldn't come to class."
Adam Goldstein, attorney advocate for the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va., said the First Amendment protects the student's writing of the story as long as the professor did not have a reasonable fear for the safety of his life.
"There is no real connection between writing violence, even first-person violence, and committing acts of violence," Goldstein said.
Berman said in an e-mail that in his 10 years of teaching, many of his students had written "gory" stories or have satirized or "lampooned (him) in a witty way."
However, he wrote, "… I've never been handed a story that created a character recognizably based on me, and seen any harm come to that character. The story in question was therefore the most inappropriate story ever submitted to any of my classes."
Berman said in a telephone interview that he cancelled the class in which the student's story, along with other students' stories, were to be discussed. He said he sent an e-mail to his entire class and posted a note on the classroom door notifying cancellation of the day's class.
Two students, who wished to remain unidentified, and Woods said they felt Berman failed to effectively communicate his cancellation of any classes or his plans regarding the movement of the class online or to be taught by a substitute.
Berman said that some classes following the story were previously cancelled as mentioned on the course syllabus.
The students said Berman never disclosed the circumstances regarding the immediate cancellation of any classes or the circumstances leading to his absence from his classroom.
"We'd sit in class and nobody knew why class was cancelled," said one anonymous student. "Everybody assumed it was because of the student's story."
The student said the writer of the story apologized to the class for the trouble the story had caused, adding that the writer of the story regretted writing it at all.
She said she didn't think the student was a danger to the class or the professor.
"I think (the student) was angry at the teacher," she said. "(The student) used the story to say something."
The fictional story contains details regarding the unusual manner in which a vampire takes its victims' lives. The student wrote, "Immediate death comes to the creatures or humans whose recent feces were consumed by these vampires."
The story ends when the vampire reveals, "I killed him," referring to the fictionalized English professor.
Gyasi said she and the student were still attending the class.
"(The student) is a regular kid. (The student) sits in the front," she said. " … If I felt a danger, then I wouldn't come to class."
Adam Goldstein, attorney advocate for the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va., said the First Amendment protects the student's writing of the story as long as the professor did not have a reasonable fear for the safety of his life.
"There is no real connection between writing violence, even first-person violence, and committing acts of violence," Goldstein said.
Berman said in an e-mail that in his 10 years of teaching, many of his students had written "gory" stories or have satirized or "lampooned (him) in a witty way."
However, he wrote, "… I've never been handed a story that created a character recognizably based on me, and seen any harm come to that character. The story in question was therefore the most inappropriate story ever submitted to any of my classes."
Berman said in a telephone interview that he cancelled the class in which the student's story, along with other students' stories, were to be discussed. He said he sent an e-mail to his entire class and posted a note on the classroom door notifying cancellation of the day's class.
Two students, who wished to remain unidentified, and Woods said they felt Berman failed to effectively communicate his cancellation of any classes or his plans regarding the movement of the class online or to be taught by a substitute.
Berman said that some classes following the story were previously cancelled as mentioned on the course syllabus.
The students said Berman never disclosed the circumstances regarding the immediate cancellation of any classes or the circumstances leading to his absence from his classroom.
"We'd sit in class and nobody knew why class was cancelled," said one anonymous student. "Everybody assumed it was because of the student's story."
The student said the writer of the story apologized to the class for the trouble the story had caused, adding that the writer of the story regretted writing it at all.
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