Posted on 04/25/2005 11:39:50 PM PDT by DameAutour
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Southern Connecticut State University barred a student from a poetry class after his professor said a poem he submitted contained veiled threats to sexually assault her and her 3-year-old daughter.
The student, Edward Bolles, said his poem entitled "Professor White," was meant to be a satirical piece about globalization. In it, a Mexican student named Juan has a sexual encounter with the daughter of his white professor.
Bolles' professor, Kelly Ritter, found the poem "disturbing," according to an April 8 campus police report, and said she believed the poem was a threat. University officials prohibited Bolles, who is Mexican, from attending his poetry class while he was investigated.
Bolles, a 36-year-old married father of two, said he and Ritter have had political disagreements in class. Bolles, a conservative, said he has disagreed with some of the liberal political themes in Ritter's poetry selections.
The same is true of the Bolles' poetic character, who pledges to "turn the tables" on his professor and has a tryst with her college-age daughter. While Bolles' acknowledges that Ritter inspired the poem, he said it was not a threat and said he did not know she had a daughter.
"I think she flatters herself," Bolles said Monday. "This poem is about a lot more than a cranky teacher. It's about anti-globalization."
Ritter, 36, did not return telephone messages seeking comment.
Bolles said the poem's interracial affair symbolizes white America's feeling that Mexicans are corrupting their culture. The encounter is not violent, and the professor's daughter brings Juan home to meet her disapproving mother.
"I came in using a different set of reasoning as context to look at the craft of poetry, and she was put off by it," Bolles said.
The poem ends with the professor trying to get Juan kicked out of school by calling one of his poems racist.
Bolles began publicly protesting the university's decision Monday, wearing a "Save Professor White" shirt and handing out fliers on campus. After that protest began and university officials received calls from The Associated Press Monday, Bolles received a hand-delivered, one-sentence letter from the administration:
"As a result of the investigation, I wish to inform you that no formal disciplinary charges will be filed on behalf of the university and you are permitted to return to your English 202, Section 1, course, Introduction to Poetry," Christopher Piscitelli, director of judicial affairs, wrote.
University spokesman Patrick Dilger said the matter was handled like any other. He said students are often held out of classes when a professor raises these types of concerns.
In her police report, Ritter asked the university to require Bolles to get a psychiatric evaluation. The school did not require that, Dilger said.
Bolles is set to return to class Wednesday, though he doesn't know how he will be received. He said he would not apologize and is concerned with how he will make up the two weeks of missed classes.
LOL! Yes it does.
However, it's what we were taught 20 years ago in our sexual harassment awareness training in my Fortune 100 company.
Don't paint me with your broad brush of "socialist conservatism"....sorry, I'm more conservative than anyone you will meet. I did NOT justify what this guy did, I don't agree with it. What I argued is that it's art. That the intent of the author who wrote it did it with different intent than she took it. She was ultra sensetive...as all liberals are.
Before you paint me, you best know me. Because I am knowledgable of others' world views does not make me what you think. Understanding world views contrary to yours does not make you believe in them.
As for the artistic merits of this fellow's "poem", I suppose we'll just have to agree to disagree. : )
LOL.
Politics aside, it's a pretty bad poem.....
Bolles said the poem's interracial affair symbolizes white America's feeling that Mexicans are corrupting their culture.
---
That wasn't what I got out of the poem. I got that Mexicans are trying to become Americans and liberals won't let them because they want them to keep their 'hispanic culture'. I read it through twice, is this not right?
Is this guy being misquoted?
Hilarious that the teacher would find a 'threat' in this poem. She should be the one taken for the psychiatric eval.
There once was a Professor named WHITE,
who HATED everything that stood on the RIGHT.
So when a young GOP entered her world, she called Howard Dean to ask how she could ruin his life.
So together they scratched their heads and they pondered and suddenly Dean shouted and screamed DAN RATHER! Rather although retired, became extremely inspired and recommended that she scream foul and make a huge fuss and act very scared indeed.
So Professor WHITE stayed up all night thinking until her plan was just RIGHT to call the police and to loudly scream, "he said he will kill me, what shall I do?".
So the plan was set in motion the very next day and Professor White held the script tightly as she proceeded to make the young GOP pay!
She dialed the number and called the police, who gave her another number instead. She wasn't very happy, her plan might be foiled, so she called on Michael Schiavo to see what to do.
He immediately gave her a name and a number and said this is who will ease your fear. So after accepting this much needed help, she looked at the paper which read, "Professor White here is the number of my friend who will help you; to ease your pain and your fear. “.
Call this man, he's never let me down, he's my good friend JUDGE GREER. Judge Greer acted immediately, but his actions were suddenly halted by a stranger who yelled, "No it's you who has faltered", then she turned to the boy to urge him flee! But before she left she said, to the boy, “By the way, it's so nice to meet you, my name is TERRI.
Then out of the blue, his lawyer arrived and stated for the press that it's all a conspiracy! He shouted, "This must stop! Because the boy leans to the RIGHT, you will always condone the life altering hearsay you spew!
But after today, we know who you are now and you've all been exposed! Come here Professor Liberal, it's time to pay the consequences for this horrid path that you chose! Then from the corner of the young boy's eye, he saw the stranger again walking by. She told him to fight and never give up and then in a flash she gone.
The boy thanked his lawyer and asked him how much he owed . The lawyer said, "Your bill is paid in full, it was a pleasure to see justice prevail.”. The boy was puzzled and thought it odd that a lawyer would not want to be paid. The Lawyer laughed when he saw his face and said, "We're not all bad. Some of us who find Justice exciting.".
With that the boy turned and waved and said Good-bye and the lawyer did the same. When the two parted paths and as the sun began to set, the boy looked at the beautiful setting sun and said, "That's as beautiful as poetic Justice"!
Another GOP student bashing LIBERAL PROFESSOR *ping*
We need your CONSERVATIVE POEMS! Good, bad or ugly! Just so that they're CONSERVATIVE! lol
Bwahllllllllololol! Hey....that's pretty good!
THIS...is PRICELESS! LOVE IT!!!!!! ROFLOLPMP!!!
WOW! You're GOOD! LOL
:.. )
The great works always bring a tear to my eye.
The classics never die!
Do you remember Bundy's masterwork, "I Care," written during an exhaustive bout of "Ethical Dilemma" with Peg, Marcy, and Jefferson?
LOL, but I still hate it.
Perfect!
That whole sequence is sad and spot on. I'm a black woman. I often have the funny feeling that some liberals want to keep us "authentic" because in reality they are racist and don't want us to join them. Keep us poor and uneducated and unable to speak English. Keep us thuggish and sluttish and dying young. We can entertain them but not run the businesses or aspire to high political office. All so we're not corrupted by the "greed" and "intolerance" of Western culture. But in reality, it keeps a wall up.
I contacted Edward Bolles and invited him to join freerepublic. He was very nice and very interested in what people thought of his poem. Also, it is apparently not over between him and this professor. Anyway, hopefully he will join freerepublic. I sent him a link to this discussion.
Do I remember!?!? Heck, yeah, and I'll post it from memory--that's right up there with Kipling's finest!
When hooters giggle around
and I find nickels on the ground
I care.
When the Mustang engine purrs
and the bathroom's not hers
I care.
When the pitcher's on the mound
and the wife is underground
I care.
But when I've been playing this for days
I'll kill anyone who stays
I swear!
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