Sexual Harassment Stories and Experiences

He asked me if I was ready to “dance” for him

Pam, Pennsylvania

I was already finished with my first year of college and was taking a summer course. From the first day, I had an odd feeling about my professor, and even thought about dropping the class. Well, he said attend every class and he would pass us all, so I ended up going to every class and worked hard to do well.

Over the semester, when I would go up to get my tests or have him explain something to me, he would usually smirk and start staring at my body. I thought he was just weird and didn’t think much of it at the time.

I had food sickness on the day of the final and had to miss class. Since he said it was a pass or fail class, I figured I would get a passing grade anyway. So, I didn’t think of contacting him.

A month later I looked at my grades and seen an F on the paper. I was shocked and annoyed because I knew I had done better than that.

I contacted him and he told me he would let me make up the test. I made it up and then he told me that I didn’t do well, but he didn’t show me the the paper nor did he even grade it or give it back. Instead, he told me that we could work out some “deal.”

I thought maybe clean the classroom or take part in a school activity….

But when I went to campus to give him my doctors note (for when I was sick), he told me that he wanted to go take a walk to talk. We wound up at his car because he said he had to get some books out of it. He then said, “Well, lets talk in here.”

I hesitated at first but figured he was my teacher, so it was okay. He then asked me if I was ready to dance for him.

I asked, “What?!”

He said, “Strip for me, I have a hotel down the street.”

I was scared and in shock. I said I need to get home, and he said, “Well, I’m doing all of this work for you, so you need to do something for me.” He then said he would give me until Monday.

I walked away in shock to the subway and just had a blank look on my face trying to told back the tears. I felt degraded.

I went up to school that very week and told them what happened. They took it very seriously. But when it got to the main campus, I did not hear anything for a whole month.

I finally called them myself, and a women told me I would receive something in the mail. Well, I did today and it said that they did not find enough evidence for my claim and have dismissed it. I had written a 2/3 page document, and even had voice mails that he sent to me late at night. But they told me they didn’t need to hear them.

I am now finding a lawyer. I take it that the professor was close with the guy in charge.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 11:32 pm and is filed under Sexual Harassment in Education, Formal Investigations and Litigation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “He asked me if I was ready to “dance” for him”

Robin Says:
December 11th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
I am really sorry that your complaint was ignored. You must have been disappointed. But I am glad that you did it anyway - the more complaints that they hear about this guy, the more credibility each complaint gives the other.

You have a lot of courage to decide to get a lawyer. Good for you - I think that you are worth standing up for! I can’t believe that you are the first student that he has tried to coerce this way - he seemed to have lot of steps already figured out. And sicne he probably figures that he ‘got away with it’ this time, he will be even more willing to try again. I know that it is hard to stand up for yourself, but the only way we can stop this from happening again is to STAND UP! and fight for ourselves! Please write back and let us know how it goes. Even if things get tough, we want to hear.
Pam Says:
December 20th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Thanks, your comment really meant a lot. I really refuse to let this guy get away with this and even the school for doing nothing about it. I have a psychiatrist who I talk to and he is going to help me get a lawyer and he really wants me to go through with this and I have the professor on my voice mails, basically being an idiot and calling me late at night trying to set up a time and day for this to have gone down! He’s a complete idiot/sexual predator and should not be teaching students who pay to go to college. It just sucks to feel like the school doesn’t even support me.
Scared 4 you Says:
December 23rd, 2007 at 1:26 am
damn hes a physco sexual predator idiot, I hope you nail this guy eventually good luck and merry christmas write back and tell us what else happens
Ceara Says:
January 1st, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Pam, I’m so glad you are going after this guy. I have also been harassed and stalked by several professors and the university has consistently ignored the problem. (Luckily, there is a federal investigation going on this now, so it looks as if things are going to change.)Please keep us posted on how things go with this. -Ceara, Admin
Pam Says:
January 6th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I’ll keep everyone updated, I’m going to my psychiatrist in a few weeks to talk about the lawyer situation. I’m just very upset lately though (from how this whole situation affected my life.) Since I was given an “F” grade, I had to sit out a semester and am only able to take a part time status, but I need to be full time to recieve health insurance on my dad’s plan. So now I have to worry about what I’m going to do about therapy. And going without my medication. I’m feeling as if my future is ruined because I’m not in school at the moment. I’ve also been depressed and it’s wierd because I’ve always been a happy person and since I’m just feeling horrible. It just sucks knowing that I had everything planned out and this incident took more than just my grade. It took my personality and me as a whole with it. And this guy gets to go on with his life. And I can’t, even if I wanted to.
Pam Says:
February 4th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
I’m so annoyed, I left a comment on ratemyprofessor and someone (hmm I wonder who it could be? *eyeroll*) decided to write a comment asking the comment that I wrote, to be ignored. I have every right to warn people about a sexual predator.
Pam Says:
March 28th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I just wanted to update. So this guy tried this on someone else and was fired. The school now has a section about SH on the website. I’m also glad that I had a Doctor that was willing to get a lawyer for me (although I chose not to go through with it). I’m actually doing better now and hopefully will be back at college in the Fall (although I’m thinking of going to another school). I’m just glad this idiot is out of a job that involves students.