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[call_me_al]

I'm not even sure whether this is a "classroom" issue any more:
One of my students, an academically bright but emotionally extremely needy 23-year-old, has started a personal vendetta against me (and against my TA, whose job he feels should have been his, by rights). During the summer break he wrote emails to most of my colleagues, the Dean of Studies, the legal department, etc., first demanding to be reported to the police as a dangerous sex offender (I had asked him to stay away from my TA, whom he had 'mildly' harrassed the previous semester; I had discussed this step with a uni councellor, and she had approved) and finally threatening to publish - in the university and on the internet - incriminating evidence against me, if I did not instantly declare why I had expelled him from my classes, why I had not given him the teaching job he had asked for, and why I had called him [and here follows a series of expletives that he had been in the habit of applying to himself, in long, ranting, self-lacerating emails, which he had sent me before: unmanly, cowardly, socially crippled, etc.]. Needless to say I had never called him any of these; on the contrary, I had always encouraged him and tried to get him to focus on his work. 

Now here's the thing: I would never have learnt about these emails and the ultimatum he set me, because he is no longer writing to me (I stopped answering his mails). The Dean first considered asking me to apologise to the student(!!), but was apparently advised against that by our legal people. It was a colleague who finally called me on the phone and briefly warned me that I might find my office door, the corridor and who knows what else papered with obscenities about me, because the uni had decided to sit the matter out. - Which is a policy I support, but I do wish they would include me in their decision-making or at least inform me about it!
I still have seen only four of the emails he sent at that time (and he must have sent many more). In these four emails he calls me the worst sort of names, accuses me of "mental instability" because I am "hiding behind the university authorities", because I don't have the guts to fight this out with himself, yadda yadda.

The Dean and the legal people say that this student has rights which forbid them to tell me more than the bare outline of events and to let me see those emails. Something to do with confidentiality. So he is allowed to slander me behind my back (including to the students; he wrote a long email to the student representatives of the faculty, which they - of course - confidentially distributed among their friends. In it, he says, among other things, that my behaviour almost drove him to suicide.), but I may not know to whom and to what extent.

Last week he provoked an encounter with my TA in the corridor. He did nothing at the time, but afterwards he wrote an email (to the professor in my field, not to me), announcing that he had barely been able to restrain himself from hitting her in the face, and he would like to announce officially that he had lost all self control and had finally turned into the "bestial monster" Dr call_me_al had always taken him to be. He says he considers himself a threat both to the TA and to Dr call_me_al, and surely no-one would like to know what will happen when he sees either of these persons again. He then launches into a paragraph dripping with hatred of me, ending on the good wish that I may "die of dysentry and rot in a rat-infested gutter". (Yes, he does have a way with words.)

Again, I have seen this email only because my colleague forwarded it. I was explicitly told by the Dean not to tell the TA more than absolutely necessary, "to protect the rights of [harrasser]". I was not to send her the mail. I have to assume that had my colleague not forwarded the mail to me, the uni would not have let me see this one, either. They will now report him to the police on a count of coercion, and they have offered to bar him from my corridor. This obviously leaves plenty of space in classrooms, staircases and other campus areas for him to come across me or even to seek me out.

I am of course concerned about what this student may do next. He has already wrecked a university washroom and is doing community service for that. He has not - yet - attacked anyone in person, but do I want to be the first?
But what bothers me even more is that the university is sitting on this case, deferring legal measures, excluding me from the proceedings -- in short, hoping that nothing will happen and he'll go away. Meanwhile I have no idea what this student has been writing about me to others. The university is deciding which risks I am to take in this case; and I feel such a fool for thinking even for a moment that my employer would protect *my* interests in this, rather than their own. 

I know I must get legal advice - from someone outside the university. But of course I know that taking a lawyer against my employer will create the maximum amount of animosity against me in the uni administration; and that frightens me. I don't know what to do.
(N.B. I am in Europe, not the US.)

[babbinacara]

This is beyond my worst nightmare. My sympathies.

This student should be seeing a doctor. But until then, you need to talk to the police and to a lawyer.
First, gather up everything you do have access to, like print-outs of any emails.
Next, write out a timeline of events--encounters, emails sent to you and to others and any you did send to the student, meetings you've had with Deans & uni legal people, and the outcomes of those meetings. 
Keep it short, bullet points.

I'd go to the police first, show them the stuff, and say you feel threatened and that you are also worried about the student harming your TA. See what they say. Wishing dysentery on you might not be violent enough for the police to do anything, but if he's already wreaked havoc in the toilets (and that hasn't just been handled internally), they may step up.

Then I'd find a lawyer. You wouldn't have to engage a lawyer for a suit against the uni, just ask for advice on your options re the student.

And tell your TA to be careful; don't forward it to her, but tell her the contents of that email. She needs to know.

Surely one of our lawyer forum friends will come along soon to weigh in. Best wishes.

[sprocket]

(N.B. I am in Europe, not the US.)

This last line explains a lot.

Is there a faculty ombudsperson you could go to for help in reminding the administration that people other than the crazy student also have rights?

[peppergal]

I agree that you should consult a lawyer at once regarding steps you can take against the threatener.  Can you get a restraining order (for both you and your TA)?  Is there any way he can be held by legal enforcement for psychiatric evaluation?

Good luck, and stay safe.

[spork]

In the USA, this type of behavior is illegal.

The student is escalating.  He is basically saying "if I commit violence, it's not my fault, because I've warned you." Guess what his next step might be?  Moving from words to action.

You and the TA need to file complaints with the police. Bring copies of all written communications.

Retain a lawyer.  Have the lawyer write to your university's legal counsel to state that this student poses a risk to your health and safety and that you expect the university to do something about it.  The lawyer can also ask, in lawyerese, for copies of all written communication received by the university that pertain to you.  The university may not cough them up, but at minimum it will make the university lawyers nervous.

If the TA can afford a lawyer, she should do the same thing.

[normative_]

Excellent advice from Babbinacara. Personally, I would let your TA know that the same options are available to her.

There is something to be said for the university dealing with this directly and shielding you, as long as they are actually taking action on your behalf, and on the TA's as well as the university's. The problem appears to be that they aren't. Ideally, I would like to know that the uni is exercising due diligence with regard to criminal activities (assault, threats of assault, blackmail all fall under this category in all legal systems). I don't have to know all the details unless there is an acute threat (as there is now).

[empyrean_aisles]

I am no lawyer, and this may not apply if you are in mainland Europe rather than the UK, but if you do happen to be in the UK I would have thought you'd be able to get all the documents the university holds pertaining to you under the Freedom of Information Act.

[threefive]

Call the police. Do it yesterday. Screw the university. Protect yourself and your TA.

[sandgrounder]

Again depending on where you are: if you are a union member, get them involved. Also how about human resources - you have a right to work without harrassment and they will know the university is on dodgy grounds on employment law, if you went off sick with stress over this. Sometimes, just sometimes, HR can be helpful as they only care about employees not students. If you can give an idea of what country, we might be able to think of other ways to proceed (as I know in some european countries the police would not be my first choice of action).

My sympathies - this sounds horrible and everyone's worst nightmare.

[grasshopper]

I'm surprised that they're willing to put one student in physical jeopardy, in order to safeguard the "rights" of another.  If your own requests for protection aren't being given consideration, perhaps your TA would have more success here?

[pathanalysis]

Wow. I agree, do something proactive (like get a restraining order or something) to protect yourself/your TA.

[alleyoxenfree]

Having firsthand experience with a similar situation, I can say:

-yes, you need a lawyer.  Good luck finding one for less than $5K retainer.  Things may be different in your country

-be very careful with the admins.  Do not trust HR; I would go there only to show later that you apprised them of the situation.  Be polite but assume that their primary interest will be documenting what you might have done at fault here.  Their job is not to protect employees - it is to protect the university.  Proceed accordingly.

-do not assume that the administration is on your side, or that they will do anything for you.  Because they know that it is difficult for you to get a lawyer, because they can retaliate against you by denying tenure or otherwise making your life hard, it is easier for them to support the student or at best, let you twist in the wind and wonder why you don't "do something" yourself

-IMHO, a strong position is to have the TA object.  He/she has rights as a student who is being harassed, and you are being drawn into it.  The school should be concerned that the TA will sue them.  Ironically, as a student, they have more clout than you do and the university should be more concerned that as a student, they are being subjected to this behavior.  It is a complete falsity that employees have protection in the workplace from this kind of behavior in most situations.  And even if the law protects them in theory, they must have the funds to sue.  But really, people, unless the laws are quite different in this European country,  you would be shocked by how little protection there is on the job in terms of what employers must provide as protection against violence.  Racial and gender discrimination and such, yes.  Violent workplace, no, especially if the threats are verbal.

-that said, protect yourself.  Talk to the police, but be prepared for them to tell you they can do nothing because campus is the jurisdiction of the campus police.  Immediately begin to vary your routine.  If you drive, considering leasing a different car.  Try to get your classroom changed.  Investigate sick leave on the grounds of mental duress or depression.  If the student has no classes in your building, see if you can get them banned from the building.  Investigate all these routes.  I know of a professor who was able to get an office in a different building.  They left the professor's office as it was outwardly, so the student didn't know - the professor simply was never there.  She did not keep office hours.  I suggest you read the book _The Gift of Fear_ by Gavin de Becker.  This student is escalating and in part, is responding to the "stimulation" they get.  DeBecker's strategies worked for me and for another friend who faced this situation.  Best of luck.

[alleyoxenfree]

And just to reply to myself, I will say good luck with unions.  You can try.  Union attorneys tend to be interested in cases where big monetary rewards are possible.  Trying to provide protection to faculty against impending violence is not something the two unions I have belonged to spent time on.  Both colleagues and I learned this the hard way.  This is especially the case where the perpetrator also belongs to the union!

We need a major conference on this subject. Witness the recent stabbing at UCLA, where a professor was courageous enough to speak out about the fact that this student indeed was known to have problems.  Yet the university was not protecting lab partners, TAs, faculty.  This is a major dirty secret of academia, and many teachers are living and working in fear because their universities do not provide a safe workplace.  Whether the violence and threats come from students, troubled staff, unstable faculty colleagues, or out-of-control admins, this is ruining lives and careers and as the poster indicates, there are often few places to turn.

[mended_drum]

Much good advice here, but I'd also be asking campus security to walk me to and from my car as long as the student is on campus.

[larryc]

This is one of the worst things I have ever heard.

I agree that getting the TA to complain is the key. Not just to complain but to say that she fears for her physical safety and wants action.