Level 3 sex offender is taking my class - struggling with how to act

[LandLoched]

Hi everybody. First-time poster here. I'm a third-year TT engineering faculty, and I'm generally not crazy about the job, partly because I find myself in situations like this.

The title says most of it. I discovered that one of the students in my class was convicted of sexual abuse of a child when he was in his 20s. He's also one of the students that spends the most time in office hours, trying to strike up conversation, and asking for additional help outside of class time.

The guy is a bit of a handful, but with this new knowledge, I'm feeling zero inclination to help him out. I resent him - it's as simple as that, and I don't think it's realistic to expect myself not to be biased. But I'm in a position where I'm obligated to interact with him on a near-daily basis, and I'm unsure of how to avoid broadcasting my judgement.

I recognize that this is probably not a unique situation, especially for large state Universities like mine, but I'm a bit weirded out.
I also guess that I'm not really asking for any concrete advice, but I am curious whether others have encountered similar situations, and if so, if there are any anecdotes to share.

[Hegemony]

Well, I had a guy in my class once who revealed that he had recently gotten out of prison for murder. I could well believe it, and I think he was telling the truth. It certainly is weird knowing that kind of thing about a person. But I reflect that offenders still need jobs and ways to support themselves — the stress of being homeless or unemployed isn't going to help them resist chances to offend again. Being a needy office-hours-lurking kind of person is its own kind of challenging. I try to head those things off by saying "Shall we just talk after class?" or pleading prior appointments. It's hard, though.

[lightning]

Hi everybody. First-time poster here. I'm a third-year TT engineering faculty, and I'm generally not crazy about the job, partly because I find myself in situations like this.

The title says most of it. I discovered that one of the students in my class was convicted of sexual abuse of a child when he was in his 20s. He's also one of the students that spends the most time in office hours, trying to strike up conversation, and asking for additional help outside of class time.

The guy is a bit of a handful, but with this new knowledge, I'm feeling zero inclination to help him out. I resent him - it's as simple as that, and I don't think it's realistic to expect myself not to be biased. But I'm in a position where I'm obligated to interact with him on a near-daily basis, and I'm unsure of how to avoid broadcasting my judgement.

I recognize that this is probably not a unique situation, especially for large state Universities like mine, but I'm a bit weirded out.
I also guess that I'm not really asking for any concrete advice, but I am curious whether others have encountered similar situations, and if so, if there are any anecdotes to share.

Has he finished serving his time, or is he enrolled in school as part of a prison release program? Or is he on parole?

[larryc]

If he's served his debt to society, as the phrase goes, you have to treat him exactly like any other student. It's not our job to second guess the criminal justice system.

[fourhats]

There are lots of people who become registered sex offenders. Some of them have done terrible things. Others have unwittingly had sex with teenagers they thought were older (there have been articles about this), and there was just a two-year age difference.

There are two different issues here. First, the repugnance toward someone who is in this status, when you don't know the whole story, and who seemingly has been adjudicated by the courts and allowed to attend college. Second, is the needy student who is spending too much time in your office.

You may not find yourself able to forgive whatever happened in the past, but you can set normal parameters around office hours and so forth.

[Parasaurolophus]

FWIW, I think you should take steps to ensure that you're grading his work fairly, if you aren't already. That could mean having them anonymize their assignments, having a TA do the grading, or asking a colleague (who's not in the know).

You certainly don't owe him special treatment, but you do owe him a fair shake. Just like any other student you don't actually like.

[mamselle]

Just for more parallax, there are some old threads discussing this question in more detail on the archived forum:

   https://www.chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,30947.msg419044.html#msg419044

and

   https://www.chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,59014.0.html

as well as this interesting post from a former offender (not a sex-offender, as far as could be told from their OP):

   https://www.chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,60864.0.html

   
This one was regarding a neighbor:

   https://www.chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,176287.0.html


Just so we can focus on truing the spokes instead of re-inventing the wheel....

M.

[Diogenes]

I totally get your squikyness, but as professors we have to be able to compartmentalize.

Education while incarcerated has been shown to clearly minimize recidivism upon re-entry. I would wager that education after the fact would help too.

People also tend to re-offend or relapse in times of personal crisis. Make sure he knows of all his resources (counseling, tutoring, etc.) so he processes stress successfully.

I've taught in prisons; in a room full of offenders, some of which I knew from the local news. This is going to sound terrible, but a mantra that helped me was that the statistical fact is you have already taught a number of sex offenders before- you just didn't know it because you didn't know their record or worse, they didn't get caught.

[HigherEd7]

I have had a few students in my classes that got of prison as well. One of them came to class with his slippers on and they still had the six-digit number on them, another student would call me boss-man from time to time...............

[Caracal]

Hi everybody. First-time poster here. I'm a third-year TT engineering faculty, and I'm generally not crazy about the job, partly because I find myself in situations like this.

The title says most of it. I discovered that one of the students in my class was convicted of sexual abuse of a child when he was in his 20s. He's also one of the students that spends the most time in office hours, trying to strike up conversation, and asking for additional help outside of class time.

The guy is a bit of a handful, but with this new knowledge, I'm feeling zero inclination to help him out. I resent him - it's as simple as that, and I don't think it's realistic to expect myself not to be biased. But I'm in a position where I'm obligated to interact with him on a near-daily basis, and I'm unsure of how to avoid broadcasting my judgement.

I recognize that this is probably not a unique situation, especially for large state Universities like mine, but I'm a bit weirded out.
I also guess that I'm not really asking for any concrete advice, but I am curious whether others have encountered similar situations, and if so, if there are any anecdotes to share.

Just curious, how did you learn this? I don't know if its particularly good practice to google students...
As for the not broadcasting your judgement. Well, just don't do it. I've had plenty of students I wasn't terribly fond of. You just treat them professionally, deal with any problems as they come up and move on.

[mamselle]

Are you a recently-conferred (i.e., younger) female? Have you dealt with abuse in your own past? (If you want to say...)

That might add to the discomfort if this offender's victims were female (one cannot make assumptions about either side of this equation). 

I do agree that one wants to be completely unbiased about how one treats a student, but there are also situations where that might be more difficult.

If it's fear for your own safety, or a trigger situation, that might be a different issue.

Finding help for your own responses in such a case might mean scheduling an additional appointment with a therapist or other support person just to talk through the issues it presents for you and come up with an approach that leaves you feeling safe and unlikely to be taken aback by anything that might come up.

One can't avoid such encounters, and one wants to avoid projecting past their likely scope of threat, but one can anticipate and prepare for the effect they might have at a more personal, even imperceptible level.

M.

[LandLoched]

Thank you all - good insights. It's helpful to hear how others have dealt with similar situations.

To address some of the ambiguities in my original post:

No, I wasn't googling students (who does that?)... There was some discussion of the sex offender registry in my Title IX training, and I got the idea to check my neighborhood. Lo and behold, the student popped up on the list. What I know is only what was on the registry page.

The student in question is in his 40s. His conviction was 20 years ago, which is a long time without re-offending. He was convicted of multiple instances of abuse of a child (under the age of 14) when he was in his mid-twenties. I don't know further details, and I don't care to find out.

I totally get your squikyness, but as professors we have to be able to compartmentalize.

Education while incarcerated has been shown to clearly minimize recidivism upon re-entry. I would wager that education after the fact would help too.

People also tend to re-offend or relapse in times of personal crisis. Make sure he knows of all his resources (counseling, tutoring, etc.) so he processes stress successfully.

I've taught in prisons; in a room full of offenders, some of which I knew from the local news. This is going to sound terrible, but a mantra that helped me was that the statistical fact is you have already taught a number of sex offenders before- you just didn't know it because you didn't know their record or worse, they didn't get caught.

I agree that the guy is within his rights to be seeking education and professional development. Moreover, the anti-recidivism point is a good one; I appreciate that educational and professional fulfillment can only help him. He's deserving of equal treatment, and to exercise any bias toward him would be inexcusable.

He doesn't know that I'm aware of his background, and I'd prefer it remain that way. I have referred him to tutoring, as he struggles a bit with the course material. Making sure that he knows about counseling and other student services is a good idea, but a tough one to broach without pretense. It may be a good idea to make it a regular part of my syllabus.

Just for more parallax, there are some old threads discussing this question in more detail on the archived forum:
...
Just so we can focus on truing the spokes instead of re-inventing the wheel....

M.

Thanks for the links. Some interesting, nuanced, and prickly conversations in there... I picked up on a theme in most of the linked threads of "I'd consider it a problem if the person in question was a level 3 offender," or "I'd be worried if the offender had a history of pedophilia." That's precisely the situation here, though I'm teaching a junior class - so no minors in the room.

FWIW, I think you should take steps to ensure that you're grading his work fairly, if you aren't already. That could mean having them anonymize their assignments, having a TA do the grading, or asking a colleague (who's not in the know).

You certainly don't owe him special treatment, but you do owe him a fair shake. Just like any other student you don't actually like.

I do grade anonymously - to the extent possible. Much of the routine grading is handled by TAs. The student has a number of accommodations for exams that I have handled myself in the past, but I plan to work through the student disability office in the future. That's a good point, and I'll be sure to protect against perceived bias in the way I handle his work.

[LandLoched]

Are you a recently-conferred (i.e., younger) female? Have you dealt with abuse in your own past? (If you want to say...)

That might add to the discomfort if this offender's victims were female (one cannot make assumptions about either side of this equation). 

I do agree that one wants to be completely unbiased about how one treats a student, but there are also situations where that might be more difficult.

If it's fear for your own safety, or a trigger situation, that might be a different issue.

Finding help for your own responses in such a case might mean scheduling an additional appointment with a therapist or other support person just to talk through the issues it presents for you and come up with an approach that leaves you feeling safe and unlikely to be taken aback by anything that might come up.

One can't avoid such encounters, and one wants to avoid projecting past their likely scope of threat, but one can anticipate and prepare for the effect they might have at a more personal, even imperceptible level.

M.

I'm male, and have been fortunate not to suffer any past abuse. So, no, this isn't a concern stemming from fear for my own safety. The safety of other students in the class was something I spent a lot more time ruminating on. In the end, I am electing to trust that the criminal justice system has allowed him to return to public life.

I do wonder whether it's worth a discrete word with the college admins or university counsel, though. We have a lot of minors on campus and, while I don't have any taking my class, I'd be curious to know what safeguards are in place and what would be expected of me if I were encounter another situation with greater legal risk.

edited: spelling

[Diogenes]

Another point I thought of is that social workers and clinical psychologists get specific training in how to compartmentalize, aim to be bias free, and to have a good poker faces.  Do you have any friends that work or teach in those fields? They might be able to offer some pointers.

[dr_codex]

Well, I had a guy in my class once who revealed that he had recently gotten out of prison for murder. I could well believe it, and I think he was telling the truth. It certainly is weird knowing that kind of thing about a person. But I reflect that offenders still need jobs and ways to support themselves — the stress of being homeless or unemployed isn't going to help them resist chances to offend again. Being a needy office-hours-lurking kind of person is its own kind of challenging. I try to head those things off by saying "Shall we just talk after class?" or pleading prior appointments. It's hard, though.

That reminds me of the time a student informed me that he would be missing class because it conflicted with a scheduled court appearance. This isn't that rare, and I've had students miss because of custody cases, traffic offenses, landlord-tenant disputes, and others. But this guy was trying to beat an assault rap, and he clearly had anger management issues. I'm pretty careful in general to ensure that my office hours are "public", as much as possible and with exceptions only in cases that require privacy; I was especially careful with this guy.

I don't know what happened at court. I do know that he passed my course, submitting average but acceptable work.