Remind them before next class. Then it’d be fair to admonish them in front of the class if they continue doing it.
Make sure your line manager is aware of it too.
I wonder if it could count as sexual harassment of a sort? You know, like putting up lewd posters in the office can count as sexual harassment. Engaging in sexual behaviour to the extent that it makes reasonable people uncomfortable would count, wouldn’t it?
Obviously there’s wiggle room (heh) in what counts as a lewd poster or overly sexual behaviour. Perhaps start that as a topic of debate.
Well I asked around today and apparently mines not the only class where our two future legal eagles try to create eaglets prematurely. However, my own colleague thought that just ignoring it would be a good idea. I must admit that its tempting, especially as I am a part timer and unlike most of the other, am primarily a full time Barrister as opposed to an academic and with the boffins already quite dismissive of lecturers from the Bar, I don’t want to give them ammunition.
Tell your colleague that ignoring a disruption like that is not fair to the rest of the class who have also paid a good amount of money to take that class.
That’s too much of a stretch. Anyway, I doubt very much if they’re actually having sex in class. If they got close to that though, I’m sure that both the school’s rules and the criminal code have a ban on “lewd behavior in public.”
Why not just assign them seats, far apart? If they argue, just point out matter-of-factly that their behavior is disrupting to the rest of the class. Make both of them move, so you’re not just singling one of them out.
But they are behaving like adults. It would be icky if they were kids.
I’m curious about the “gyrating”- is she sitting on the guy’s lap? Are they reaching into each other’s pants? Are they making out? How much physical interaction can there be in a classroom?
If they’ve been warned privately and haven’t stopped, and if you aren’t comfortable with calling them out in class, then inform your Dean you are throwing them out of the class. You might let with “withdraw while passing” (Ha!), but either they go or you go - right now. If you’re in the US I like the “Sexual Harassment” angle - they are creating a hostile workplace environment. It seems to my non-lawyer eyes that their behavior fits those definitiion.
I would go with the public calling out. “Miss Smith, Mr Jones, your behavior is inappropriate for this lecture theater. You have two options, knock it off, right now and never do it again, or leave and don’t return. Your call.”
As a fellow part-timer (not law, but still…), I understand your reluctance to take a stand here. However, if it is bad enough that the students and other faculty have noticed, it has to be addressed. These are graduate students! You don’t owe them any warning. They should know that this behavior is inappropriate. Next time it happens, calmly stop your lecture and say, “Mr. Jones, Miss Smith, leave my classroom now.” And it is your classroom. What they are doing is very disrespectful to you. Putting up with it is costing you the respect of the other students in the class.
Having said that, I’m having a hard time imagining just what they could be doing that’s so bad, yet not bad enough to warrant immediate dismissal from the class. And I thought the guy who was constantly scratching his crotch was bad!
Another consideration as a part-timer: Yes, kicking them out has a high probability that they will complain to the dean. But, not kicking them out also has a potential cost. The rest of the class is thinking of you as a pawn and a pushover. With that reputation, they will take even the smallest complaints to the dean. So, you risk having many different complaints which ultimately is a worse option. There is no surefire win-win here for your teaching career, but there is a win-win for the class. Kick them out.
I need to amend my previous advice and say that it is probably a good idea to check with the dean first. Even worse than letting them continue canoodling, would be to kick them out, only to have the dean overrule and put them back in.
Yep, I forgot to add this part. Definitely let the dean know what you are doing. If you tell him in person, follow up with an email reiterating what you said. It would be best to get a higher-ups go-ahead before kicking them out. However, you’ve already confronted them about it once and the behavior is pretty egregious, so I might go ahead, then follow up with the dean to let him know what happened.
This might be overly simplistic, but what sort of reaction would a presiding judge have to this sort of behavior in a bar/court session? You might rightly argue that the same sort of professional standard for behaviors at court or in the working office may be reasonably expected in class.
I have a good mixture of barristers and professional academics as lecturers. I have three who I really like and admire. Two of them are barristers and one is an academic who spent his early career clerking for a High Court justice. Due to the influece of one of my barrister lecturers, I am seriously considering becoming one myself. Tell the boffins to stuff it.
1A. You’re a barrister who can’t glare someone into compliance with your every whim? I’m…astounded.
As a student, I would like you to absolutely tell them to knock if off. If you can make it entertaining for the rest of us while doing it, bravo. The rule against perpetuities is hard enough to understand (magic gravel? wtf?*) without being distracted by the Get A Room twins in the middle. Plus, law school is humourless enough, so if you can do it, embarrass them AND make us laugh, we’re all for it.
*No seriously WTF? And people making out in the middle of a lecture hall is gross. Surprised their peers have not turned on them.
Every time they start up call on them.
“Mr. Jones why don’t you state the facts of the case for us?”
“Ms. Smith, explain why this particular law was applied in such and such a way.”
Well in today class (the first one of the day and one I had to run from Court to take), they acted up again and this time I followed advise and asked them to repeat what I had said. As neither of them could say anything remotely satisfactory I managed to tell them off for not paying attention. They looked suitably chasned. The boy also got selected to give a presentation in the next class (I probably would have selected him anyway) so that takes care of that. I also told the Director and apparently mine was not the first complaint.