Vegas shooter who killed 3 was professor who recently applied for job at UNLV

Started by marshwiggle, December 07, 2023, 09:03:52 AM

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Ruralguy

To my mind there is nothing she could/would have said or done (even going off to Vegas with him, or marrying him and living happily ever after) that would retroactively have made this a good choice of words for Polito. He was inappropriate and wrong. No doubts. Of course now we know he was a  crazy murderous slime-ball, so sexual harassment hardly seems surprising as part of this guy's pathetic repertoire.

Langue_doc

Quote from: RatGuy on December 12, 2023, 06:23:26 AM
Quote from: Hegemony on December 12, 2023, 12:52:01 AMJeepers creepers. 'The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, previously told NBC News that Polito pursued her for nearly an entire semester, contacting her almost every day through email and texts and buying her gifts. "I felt preyed upon," she said."

And:

"...she also said she complained about how unconventional Polito's class was, noting he rarely stuck to the course topic, but would focus instead on Las Vegas."

(All from the NBC article.)

It's clear he had lost any perspective on appropriate behavior. And was somehow obsessed with Las Vegas.

I don't want to hijack, but what does a faculty member do when they hear someone else check one of the above boxes? For example, I've heard a guy (whose office and occasional classroom are near mine) say comments similar to the "a low cut outfit gets an A in my class). Or "what the F%^# is wrong with you?" when a student wears a Kiss shirt and doesn't listen to Kiss, or offers them candy when they come to mandatory office hours. To me, his behavior is unprofessional and objectionable — but what if they students don't find him such? I certainly don't think he's a conspiracy theorist or hoarding guns, but I do think he's capable of getting drunk with his male students and ogle sorority girls. What's elevates my concerns from prurient gossip to something worth documenting?

Isn't the sexual harassment workshop (or something similar) mandated at your institutions? In our state, if a professor or other employee continues to make inappropriate comments after being asked to stop those comments would be considered to be sexual harassment, as would comments that are clearly sexual in nature. What is considered sexual harassment in the workplace changed drastically after our former gov was forced to resign. Now, harassment has to be reported within  a certain time frame--I think it is 6 months or so. If the victim fails to report the incident(s), then there is no recourse. Under the new guidelines, former gov wouldn't have had to resign as most of the allegations go back several years and were not reported until recently. I recall that employees who overhear comments of a sexual nature are likewise mandated to report these.