I Am Accused Of Being Racist

[WarmNPrickly]

[QUOTE=Contrapuntal]
Unsubstantiated, not false. And why should the burden of proof be on the accused?
[/QUOTE]

Your right. I said necessary. I should have said that I can see the rationalization, for the same reason that I replaced the word “unsubstantiated” with “false”. It is wrong however you cut it. I know from experience. There certain places in this country where it is seen as necessary. It’s too bad that these places don’t see the damage that it does to the very cause they allege to support.

[Duke_of_Rat]

[QUOTE=Spezza]
Can the Dean, upon his assessment of the case, decide that the “D” mark was unfair and actually fail the students? I hope so.
[/QUOTE]

I thought this was pretty funny considering the user name of the OP.

[Boyo_Jim]

Any chance you could have another teacher who teaches the course grade them again, using copies with personal indentification of the students stripped out?

Not by Monday, I’m sure, but this would be a reasonable proposal to keep in your back pocket should your dean not be as supportive as you hope.

Are these hand-written? That would make doing something like this difficult to impossible, as the students would probably claim you were mis-reading their writing – especially for punctuation. And obviously you can’t hand a teacher the already graded version with your marks and comments – that would “bias” the results – or I’m sure that would be the claim.

[phouka]

Been there while I was student teaching in a Shelter English Instruction 10th Grade British Literature class. I explained to a student that he was failing class, because he had failed to turn in seven or eight of the twelve assignments, and he looked at me and said I was racist.

I ended up pinching the bridge of my nose and counting to ten so I didn’t end up screaming at him. I then asked him if he had considered that the other 35 students in his class were also immigrant Latinos from the same province as he was, and that most of them were passing. He shut up after that.

[Cicero]

This is one you have to win.

[Plan_B]

I have lots of friends in academia. I wouldn’t worry about this one at all. The Dean knows what’s going on and just wants to do a perfunctory check to make sure that you were fair.

I remember when I was an undergrad I had a prof who was a very extreme leftist in every area except one: affirmative action in colleges. He gave Fs to any student who deserved it and never had any problems at all.

[Boyo_Jim]

[QUOTE=Plan B]
I have lots of friends in academia. I wouldn’t worry about this one at all. The Dean knows what’s going on and just wants to do a perfunctory check to make sure that you were fair.

I remember when I was an undergrad I had a prof who was a very extreme leftist in every area except one: affirmative action in colleges. He gave Fs to any student who deserved it and never had any problems at all.
[/QUOTE]
WTF are you talking about? Affirmative action is about recruiting minority students to attend schools. It has absolutely nothing to do with grading students’ classroom performances differently based on their race.

[smiling_bandit]

[QUOTE=Boyo Jim]
WTF are you talking about? Affirmative action is about recruiting minority students to attend schools. It has absolutely nothing to do with grading students’ classroom performances differently based on their race.
[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately, that’s not always true.

[DMark]

OK, here is the follow up to the story.

We had the meetings today. First up was the guy who missed 50% of the class. He rambled on about how the school had promised that work schedules would be no problem and he saw no reason for me to lower his participation grade simply because he wasn’t there.
He further explained that I was a liar and told him all of his assignments were turned in and that he was going to get a good grade in the class. He went on to say that I belittled him by asking him not to speak Spanish in class, as it was an English class.

The Dean of Students then presented him with the quizzes (all of which he failed) and the final exam (which he failed) and the final essay (a very generous C- on my part) with errors in every sentence.

He has threatened to quit the school and go elsewhere. He had a long list of other complaints about me, about the school, about the other teacher who had also given him a “D” and then left the room. He did, however, shake hands before leaving.

Following the meeting with him, the Dean shook her head and said, “Well, I can see how he might have been a problem in your class.”

The second meeting went better - the student admitted she had done little or no homework and agreed that her English had not improved because of that fact. She had misunderstood the grade and thought a “D” meant that she failed the course and would have to take it over. Once she learned that she had “passed” and would not have to take the course over again, she pretty much dropped her complaint. The meeting ended with smiles and handshakes and best wishes during the school break.

Other than the complaint by the male student regarding telling them to stop speaking Spanish in class (actually, I told them to stop talking in class - I don’t recall Spanish being the problem) there was no further mention of my being anti-Hispanic. Perhaps that was blurted out in the heat of the moment to get the attention of the Dean.

At any rate, it gave me no pleasure to give them low grades, but I still think I was more than fair. Their files are now in the hands of the Dean, and she has informed me that the grades will stand as they are now. I know that this exchange has also made its way into MY file - so I guess that means if another student ever uses the race card again, it will then be two strikes against me. So, just as I predicted, no winners in this situation.

[denquixote]

[QUOTE=Contrapuntal]
Unsubstantiated, not false. And why should the burden of proof be on the accused?
[/QUOTE]

How do you get unsubstantiated out of something that is not true? These accusations are false, the fact that they can’t be proven doesn’t mean a thing. It is not the opposite of substantiated equals true. The accusation can be unsubtantiated and also true. That is not the case here. The accusation here is false. (Always assuming everything the poster said is accurate.)

The burden of proof should not be on the accused, but I don’t believe it is here. The burden of proof seems to be on the students charging racism, but that still requires the teacher to be investigated otherwise actual racism could never be proven.

[denquixote]

[QUOTE=DMark]

At any rate, it gave me no pleasure to give them low grades, but I still think I was more than fair. Their files are now in the hands of the Dean, and she has informed me that the grades will stand as they are now. I know that this exchange has also made its way into MY file - so I guess that means if another student ever uses the race card again, it will then be two strikes against me. So, just as I predicted, no winners in this situation.
[/QUOTE]

I guess I must be racist, it would have given me a lot of pleasure to give them the grade they deserve.
I can’t see how the fact that this is accurately recorded in your file can be in any way detrimental to your career. If that were the case why would you continue? You were the winner here, your integrity remains unquestioned.

[Cicero]

[QUOTE=denquixote]
I guess I must be racist, it would have given me a lot of pleasure to give them the grade they deserve.
I can’t see how the fact that this is accurately recorded in your file can be in any way detrimental to your career. If that were the case why would you continue? You were the winner here, your integrity remains unquestioned.
[/QUOTE]

I agree. The fact that yyu were (to my mind exonnerated) and the marks stood would suggest that you weren’t racist.

[Kyla]

[QUOTE=denquixote]
I guess I must be racist, it would have given me a lot of pleasure to give them the grade they deserve.
[/QUOTE]

Not to put words in DMark’s mouth, but I’m a teacher and it never makes me happy to fail a student, even if they were an obnoxious smart ass who never paid attention or did any work. I just feel disappointed that the kid is screwing themself over by not learning anything in school.

[glee]

[QUOTE=DMark]

At any rate, it gave me no pleasure to give them low grades, but I still think I was more than fair. Their files are now in the hands of the Dean, and she has informed me that the grades will stand as they are now. I know that this exchange has also made its way into MY file - so I guess that means if another student ever uses the race card again, it will then be two strikes against me. So, just as I predicted, no winners in this situation.
[/QUOTE]

I agree that there are usually no winners in these situations.
However I think you can be more optimistic about why the records have been kept. They show you were fair, and will help if some dolt tries it on again.

It may cheer you up to hear this one from my School:

On a trip abroad (voluntarily organised by me), one student behaves crassly (swearing in public, insulting natives and upsetting the sponsor).
Both supervising teachers tell him to behave and warn him about repercussions. He continues, so we tell him he will not be invited on future trips.
When he gets home, his mother goes ballistic and demands the Head sack me for accusing her angelic son of doing anything wrong.
The Head is calm and suggests I have a meeting with the pupil to resolve the situation. After 5 minutes, the pupil tells me I am a liar who hates him because he is so talented. :rolleyes: I stop the meeting and leave to report. On my way out I meet the mother. She demands to know what happened. I tell her that her son called me a liar. As son shambles up to us, looking embarrassed, she says to him “You didn’t call Glee a liar, did you?!” Son perks up. “No - I didn’t!” Mother rounds on me “You’re the liar!” :smack:
I leave and send a report to the Head. Later he turns up at my house. :eek:
He says i handled things well, that he believes me and supports me.