Students with potential mental illness
Hi all,
One thing that I encountered at one school where I taught was a student with what seemed to be a mental illness. I say this because she disclosed - publicly, in the discussion area! - that she had urges to kill people. She even mentioned that her psychologist had told her to talk about it because it was better to talk about it. She would also attack students (in writing) if they mentioned being gay. When I tried to talk to her about it (privately/email), she got upset and told me that she had done nothing wrong. What was worse was that when I attempted to contact the school, they said there was nothing wrong. It wasn't until the class was over that they sent a message to her (copied to me) saying that her postings were inappropriate. I no longer teach at that school, but I was wondering if anyone else had run into similar issues with online students and how they handled it?
Thanks,
Kate
Christopher,
The course expectations are very important here. If you set the expectation in the syllabus you have a strong document to go back to and refer them to about their behavior and consequences for those actions.
Herbert Brown III
I had a student once who was very belligerent to other students, nothing nearly to the point of yours, Kate, was close. Fortunately, I had placed discussion etiquette rules in my syllabus that mentioned that this kind of behavior would not be tolerated. After I sent a message to the student, pointing out the rules in the syllabus and stating that the student could face disciplinary action, he stopped. I think the key to handling these kinds of situations is to state the rules up front and provide harsh consequences when those rules are not followed. To work though, it's very important to have support from administration.
Chris
