Student Mental Health and Course Completion

[spork]

"Chair will support me" is often different from "chair has the authority to initiate removal of student from course and has acted on this authority."

[mamselle]

Student contacted me again and still wants to make up the entire course. Stu also mentioned that stu can't retake the class due to financial reasons and is 'better now' that stu had some counseling. Stu also said that it would crush them if stu couldn't finish this course and that stu 'wouldn't be able to handle it.' I have forwarded the email to my Chair. Any suggestions here on how to proceed?

Isn't the semester over? The student failed the course, and is trying to insinuate that you will be at fault if they commit suicide. Again, forward email simultaneously to multiple higher authorities to establish a document trail. State that student is clearly not in a position to succeed academically in your course and needs intervention.

Or, bow to student's repeated attempts at extortion until he/she gets the grade he/she wants.

The summer semester is over in about two weeks. I have contacted my Chair about this and my Chair will support me in whatever I do. I have a paper trail and plenty of documentation.

Clean: I do accept late work, but there is a penalty per day. This student has missed over half the work and I plan to tell stu (again) that it is too late to turn it in. This situation has rattled me a bit. I had an ex who used suicide as a way to hurt me and he told me as much, so I take this sort of thing very seriously. I feel bad for the student, but I won't be bent over a barrel.

Sorry that this raises traumatic recollections for you, personally, in addition to all the other issues.

Stay strong. All good thoughts.

M.

[Langue_doc]

Student contacted me again and still wants to make up the entire course. Stu also mentioned that stu can't retake the class due to financial reasons and is 'better now' that stu had some counseling. Stu also said that it would crush them if stu couldn't finish this course and that stu 'wouldn't be able to handle it.' I have forwarded the email to my Chair. Any suggestions here on how to proceed?

Isn't the semester over? The student failed the course, and is trying to insinuate that you will be at fault if they commit suicide. Again, forward email simultaneously to multiple higher authorities to establish a document trail. State that student is clearly not in a position to succeed academically in your course and needs intervention.

Or, bow to student's repeated attempts at extortion until he/she gets the grade he/she wants.

I would not engage any further with the student. Let the chair/dean/other higher authority handle this. If the semester is over, don't respond to emails from the student--use the "out of the office until x date" automatic response feature.

[clean]

"out of the office until x date" automatic response feature.

Hard to justify while summer classes are going on.

[fishbrains]

Student contacted me again and still wants to make up the entire course. Stu also mentioned that stu can't retake the class due to financial reasons and is 'better now' that stu had some counseling. Stu also said that it would crush them if stu couldn't finish this course and that stu 'wouldn't be able to handle it.' I have forwarded the email to my Chair. Any suggestions here on how to proceed?

Isn't the semester over? The student failed the course, and is trying to insinuate that you will be at fault if they commit suicide. Again, forward email simultaneously to multiple higher authorities to establish a document trail. State that student is clearly not in a position to succeed academically in your course and needs intervention.

Or, bow to student's repeated attempts at extortion until he/she gets the grade he/she wants.

What spork and others have said: This is above your pay-grade, and it's time to kick this up-the-ladder. You don't get paid to deal with this, you aren't qualified to deal with this, and it's not healthy for you to even try to deal with this. The dean shouldn't "support" you; instead, the college should intervene for you. Get other higher-ups involved if you need to do so to cover your rear.

Good luck with this.

[Caracal]

Just a note. Don't get too locked into the "those are the rules in the syllabus" mindset. It can be easy as an inexperienced teacher to think you can't make exceptions or allow for flexibility. You can, and sometimes you should, allow more flexibility.

It sounds like you're making the right call in this case. I tend to think of these sorts of situations as a balance between how much work the student has done in the course, and how much they have stayed in contact with me and attempted to stay engaged. There isn't some magic formula, however. Part of our job is actually to make subjective judgements (which isn't the same thing as capricious or inequitable judgements)

I agree with others about disengaging on this. Students occasionally make emotional appeals about the impact a grade will have on them. Usually, it is about their need to graduate or to stay in some program. You just can't engage on it because it's irrelevant. This student's version is more upsetting, but its in the same category. Make sure you've flagged the potential threats of self harm, tell the student that you'd be happy to support a withdrawal petition if that's an option and they should go through the dean of student's office and move on.

[clean]

It can be easy as an inexperienced teacher to think you can't make exceptions or allow for flexibility. You can, and sometimes you should, allow more flexibility.

Treating students differently can open yourself to claims of discrimination that would be difficult to defend.  What you do for one, you must be prepared to do for all!  (No good deed goes unpunished!)

[fishbrains]

It can be easy as an inexperienced teacher to think you can't make exceptions or allow for flexibility. You can, and sometimes you should, allow more flexibility.

Treating students differently can open yourself to claims of discrimination that would be difficult to defend.  What you do for one, you must be prepared to do for all!  (No good deed goes unpunished!)

Meh. Humane syllabus policies can't cover everything, and I need to sleep at night. On the very rare occasion when I break with my own policies for a singular situation, I make sure the chair/dean is aware of what I'm doing and approves. I've found that chairs/deans are generally quite human, but they really don't like surprises.

An example: The last time I broke with my own policies occurred when an "A" student had a miscarriage the week before a major essay was due and we were already behind schedule because of multiple snow cancellations. $hit happens, and you gotta adjust.

[Caracal]

It can be easy as an inexperienced teacher to think you can't make exceptions or allow for flexibility. You can, and sometimes you should, allow more flexibility.

Treating students differently can open yourself to claims of discrimination that would be difficult to defend.  What you do for one, you must be prepared to do for all!  (No good deed goes unpunished!)

Meh. Humane syllabus policies can't cover everything, and I need to sleep at night. On the very rare occasion when I break with my own policies for a singular situation, I make sure the chair/dean is aware of what I'm doing and approves. I've found that chairs/deans are generally quite human, but they really don't like surprises.

An example: The last time I broke with my own policies occurred when an "A" student had a miscarriage the week before a major essay was due and we were already behind schedule because of multiple snow cancellations. $hit happens, and you gotta adjust.

Exactly. It's with the normal and common situations where you need to have rules and follow them. If I don't allow students to do reading quizzes late, I shouldn't allow one student to do it because of some minor issue and not another. (I should also have humane policies allowing students to miss a couple without penalty but that's a different issue) I'm sure Fishbrains would make similar accommodations for other diligent students dealing with tragic life events.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

The student has contacted me again (twice today) and wants to meet with me. The last day of class is next Monday. Bet you $50, the student wants to turn in everything on Monday. For reference, the student has turned in 20% of the course work.

[Mobius]

If they have the work, slapping a grade on it shouldn't take up much time. I've told students they don't get feedback when they turn in work that late.

[marshwiggle]

If they have the work, slapping a grade on it shouldn't take up much time. I've told students they don't get feedback when they turn in work that late.

If they're handing a bunch of work in this late, there's a good chance they've gotten it from someone who handed it in on time and so it's plagiarized. Not so easy to grade if it seems like plagiarism but you don't still have a copy of everything previously handed in. (Not a problem with online submission, but if actual paper documents were handed in, it could be an issue.)

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

If they have the work, slapping a grade on it shouldn't take up much time. I've told students they don't get feedback when they turn in work that late.

If they're handing a bunch of work in this late, there's a good chance they've gotten it from someone who handed it in on time and so it's plagiarized. Not so easy to grade if it seems like plagiarism but you don't still have a copy of everything previously handed in. (Not a problem with online submission, but if actual paper documents were handed in, it could be an issue.)

Right. I have a crystal clear syllabus statement that I accept no work that is more than 10 days late (10% loss/day). Stu has already tried bargaining with me and I suspect will try it again.

[dismalist]

If they have the work, slapping a grade on it shouldn't take up much time. I've told students they don't get feedback when they turn in work that late.

If they're handing a bunch of work in this late, there's a good chance they've gotten it from someone who handed it in on time and so it's plagiarized. Not so easy to grade if it seems like plagiarism but you don't still have a copy of everything previously handed in. (Not a problem with online submission, but if actual paper documents were handed in, it could be an issue.)

Right. I have a crystal clear syllabus statement that I accept no work that is more than 10 days late (10% loss/day). Stu has already tried bargaining with me and I suspect will try it again.

Good. Just say no, assign a grade, and let the administration deal with the student. Never be afraid to fight for principle.

[Caracal]

If they have the work, slapping a grade on it shouldn't take up much time. I've told students they don't get feedback when they turn in work that late.

If they're handing a bunch of work in this late, there's a good chance they've gotten it from someone who handed it in on time and so it's plagiarized. Not so easy to grade if it seems like plagiarism but you don't still have a copy of everything previously handed in. (Not a problem with online submission, but if actual paper documents were handed in, it could be an issue.)

Right. I have a crystal clear syllabus statement that I accept no work that is more than 10 days late (10% loss/day). Stu has already tried bargaining with me and I suspect will try it again.

I don't love those kind of policies...