While I wish I could have made this story shorter so it would appeal to more people, I felt like everything in here is relevant and necessary to see the big picture. Feel free to scroll past it all for the TL;DR, but I would appreciate full reads and I’d like to think it's a fun enough story to keep you hooked. While it's hard to defend myself since the email I wrote WAS rude, inappropriate and condescending, the way in which they handled this situation has left me baffled and, ultimately, financially crippled.
Not for the usual reasons...
I was suspended from college (technical/2 year college) for a year. Not because of drugs, alcohol, fighting, grades (3.65 GPA), attendance (only missed one day in the year I had been attending) or any of the usual reasons, but because an e-mail I sent to a teacher was deemed to be a “threat” by the school.
I will preemptively state that I've had no prior incidents..this isn't a third strike and you're out situation. This is a "we don't like your kind around here" situation of intolerance from the alt-left.
While I can’t say I handled the situation perfectly, or that I couldn’t have avoided the penalty were I to have played their game, I can say that the consequences are not only harsh in their own right but significantly more damaging to me personally since I am a veteran using the GI Bill, and attending college is my primary source of income.
Not only can I not finish my degree (having an associates degree in Information Security would really boost my career prospects), but in addition I was participating in the work-study program in the veterans office as my primary job (of two part time jobs). In total, the income loss as a result of this decision was approximately $1900 a month. I now have only the job I had to get as a cook on the weekends, hoping that a company is willing to overlook my suspension and hire me, as if not having the degree wasn’t enough of a handicap...
What is most troubling, is that the school made this decision 3 days before the semester was to begin, leaving no time for a fair appeal process to occur. To back that claim up, when I asked the Student Conduct Officer if there was any chance that the appeals process would be completed quickly enough for me to attend classes this semester, his hesitation and subsequent dancing around the question was enough for me not to even waste my time trying.
Without further ado, the email:
Ill make this easy for you to understand:
If you try to give me anything except an A in this course, id advise you to get approval from [the department head] first; there is no way im going to bend over and let you give it to me that hard.
Even though I’d like to think that I shouldn’t have to explain why a one year suspension is extreme for something like this, I’ll still defend myself as to why I was being so rude in the email:
For context and because I don’t want to sound like a brat, I had a raw score of 97% between tests and homework (it is a math class so scoring is pretty straight forward). At the time I sent this email, she had brought my score down to a 93%. Throughout the semester, she was removing points (without warning) for two reasons, one is the following syllabus requirement:
To receive attendance points, you will need to login and work on the course for at least 6 hours per week until you have finished the course.
Ignoring the fact that the statement is vague (logged in, or actively working?), apparently I was doing the homework too fast...Whatever, I shrugged it off because attendance was a small portion of the grade and my good scores should keep me at an A. The other reason, which is too long to give the full story of, can be summarized by saying that I had points removed for not showing my work, even though I had done it multiple times previously and she never said anything about it.
If you’re still reading this, thanks. You’re a trooper!
Now that the background is out of the way, lets fast forward to me riding my bike going to campus to work out at the gym. I get a phone call, stop my bike to answer it, and its the dean of general studies who would like to speak to me regarding an email I sent to a teacher. I asked if she can do it right now since I was about to be on campus anyway, and she agreed. When I got the office, I was waiting for about 5 minutes before I realized they might try to make this last an hour. I politely asked her (really, I was very polite about it) if she could make sure this doesn’t take too long because I was on my way to the gym and I had taken a pre-workout energy drink. (Me asking them to hurry things up was later described as “demanding” in the suspension letter I was sent, a complete twisting of the fabric of reality).
Upon asking her that, she became visibly shaken, speed walking into the waiting area asking the receptionist to call [the student conduct officer] and tell him to come immediately (her voice was as though she was in the midst of an actual emergency). It was at this point I realized what I would be dealing with and almost just left, but I stayed calm and entertained their desire to speak.
Once the meeting began, she said that the email was perceived as a threat. I asked her how it was a threat, and she responded “thats what I’m asking you.” Well, of course I wasn’t sure how to respond to that so I insisted that the ball lies in her court; accusing someone of making a threat without being able to articulate the threat, explicit or implicit, is quite puzzling. The student conduct officer saved her by saying “well what did you mean by this?” It was a fair question, and I responded by summarizing it as "not wanting to get screwed over."
I then go on to apologize,
I said that even though it’s not a threat I agree it was inappropriate and that I should have worded it differently. I said if I were to write it again I wouldn't use the same expression.
I then went on to explain that sometimes I forget to filter myself, and that having been in the Marine Corps for 5 years my sense of what is considered appropriate is slightly skewed. Even in lieu of me apologizing within the first five minutes of the meeting, they had the audacity to put this in the suspension letter:
[he] failed to take responsibility for his actions
I cut the meeting short after about 10 minutes, which was probably in their favor as one more second of this line of questioning would have triggered me into a micro-tantrum. The next day I show up to work at the veterans office on campus, and within 1 minute of sitting in my chair my boss boss (not immediate supervisor) brings me to her office to talk about the issue some more.
We talked for roughly two hours, during which I felt like I did a good job of listening, staying calm, giving concessions, and explaining that my sense of what is considered appropriate is a bit off. While I could easily be described as defiant (who wouldn’t be defiant in the face of such outrageous accusations??) or rude (I made no attempt to hide my unwillingness to abide by their social justice warrior manipulations of reality), they way they paint a picture of me couldn't be further from the truth.
Wrapping it up
This meeting was on a Thursday, the first day of the semester was the following Thursday, and on the Monday of the first week of classes, I received a call stating that I was being suspended for one year. I was not allowed to step foot on the campus or they would call the police.
What's funny is that they even recognize that this punishment is severe. Rather than not give such a severe punishment, they decided to simply shift the severity accusation onto me, as seen here:
Based on the severity of the violation and the potential for further violations to occur, the one year suspension is an appropriate Sanction being issued by the college.
Although to be fair, when they paint the picture they do (in their minds), maybe a one year suspension is justified. Look at this gem of a quote describing me:
At the on set of the investigation, Jeffrey's behavior was demanding, controlling, intimidating and abusive toward the College Conduct process.
Demanding is a stretch, controlling is semi-reasonable, but intimidating is an outright lie. I stayed calm and rational the whole time, didn't raise my voice once, and apologized for what I wrote. With regard to "and abusive toward the college conduct process..." what does that even mean?
As I said to begin with, it is hard as someone with such an abrasive, rude, and lewd personality to defend myself to the public. If I’ve managed to do that let me know. If not, let me know what I did that would actually justify a one year suspension and crippling of my income with no warning whatsoever.
TL;DR:
I told a teacher "there is no way im going to bend over and let you give it to me that hard" in response to her lowering of my grade from a raw score of 97% to what she considered a more accurate grade of 93%. That statement was determined by the college to be a threat and they subsequently decided to suspend me for one year. Being that I’m a veteran, college was my primary source of income, made worse by the fact that my primary job was being a work-study at the veterans office. In total this resulted in an immediate loss of $1,900 per month and further more I now have to try to convince a company to hire me with only half a degree resulting from being suspended.Attached is the suspension letter. My favorite paragraph is the 3rd in the "Rationale" section. They claim I said things which I didn't say, they straw man just about every statement I made to be able to sound semi-reasonable. For example they said I walked into the deans office unannounced after being told "several times" to sit in the waiting area. What really happened is that I walked the 5 feet from where I was sitting, poked my head through her open door, and politely asked that this process not take longer than it needs to. "Several times" was at most two, and its not like I barged through any doors.
In other words, I wasn't a good puppy because I didnt "stay."
. 