Tayari's Blog: When Does "Crazy" Become Deadly?

Comment #1, by bryn c

This issue has been weighing on me, too, in addition to the tragedy itself. In the CRW classes I've taught, I've always had at least one student "a bit off." It's not that it’s unexpected or surprising. After all, there's a long history of artists blurring that sometimes tenuous creative line between eccentricity and madness. Of course, it’s one thing to be crazy in the privacy of your own head and another entirely to expose a room full of writers to it week after week.

It's a hard call, the line between what is creative expression/pushing boundaries and what is unbalanced or even dangerous. As a teacher, I want to encourage openness and experimentation, but I also feel I have an obligation to foster a safe, trusting learning environment, especially in a creative writing class, when students are already vulnerable, their little hearts splashed all over the pages. I have to consider the rights and well-being of all the students in the room, not just one. I’m a teacher, not a counselor.

In my most difficult case, I had to have a student removed from class. The student’s writing was unsettling (in this case, pedophilia) but it was really his behavior that caused the problem: ranting, disjointed comments and intimidating encounters in the hall and at outside functions. As a new teacher, I was especially unsure of where the line was, but I did document details and tell my supervisors, who luckily were supportive. The deciding factor for me was a day when other students started openly airing their discomfort and, worse, fears about what the student might do. The most awful twist: The student resisted removal. In a security blunder, he escaped from the dean’s office and came crashing back into the classroom about fifteen minutes into class. To this day, I still seize up when harried students burst in late. Long story short, the student was seriously mentally ill but not homicidal. At least not in that incident – as Tayari said, Not that I know of.

But I don’t know that I prevented anything. I often question myself: Did I overreact, too hypersensitive to the calls of hypersensitive students? Was he harmless? Did he have as much right to stay in class as everyone else? Was he an outsider artist, pushing the edge of acceptability, creating something compelling that I was too narrow-minded to see? Was I too cautious?

With the anguish of Virginia Tech and the monstrous images of Cho coloring my hindsight, today, at least, I’m going to answer, No.

Comment #2, by Michael Fischer

Over the last few days I’ve read numerous accounts of profs and instructors reflecting back on their own experiences with troubled and disruptive students, which has been helpful for me because I tend to take THEIR "issues" personally, something I shouldn’t do.

One sidebar: I have to laugh at some of these gun freaks talking about how if students had been allowed to “protect themselves” (aka carry a concealed handgun), this might’ve not occurred.

Can you imagine handing back stories or papers knowing that the students are allowed to pack heat on campus?

I think good ole’ grade inflation would take on a whole new meaning.

Comment #3, by Michael Fischer

I feel bad about my last post. By taking students' "issues" personally, I don't mean to suggest that teachers shouldn't try to help their students within the context of a teacher-student relationship. The VT English faculty (Roy, NG, and Falco) did as good of a job as one could expect in that regard. Any guilt beyond that is unnecessary, and all three faculty members are true heroes.

It's a tough line to walk as a teacher, and I feel like I have a unique perspective on this, as I've dealt with mental illness my whole life—personally and more recently “on the other side of the lectern.” And as someone who has dealt with mental illness most of his life, I can tell you that the stigma is often worse than the "illness," and I do worry that this case will make the "stigma" even worse for the majority of "mentally ill" college students, most of whom wouldn’t harm a fly.