Former teacher

[AUTHOR’S NOTE: The following is part of the 9 post story “Injustice at K-State,” that documents my interactions with the K-State judicial system. It was originally written November 19, 2012 and was edited over Thanksgiving Break. I published it during Winter Break.]

Later, I talked with my parents and my friends about what had happened. That night (October 29), I found two emails I had received from the campus police… from November 2011. The emails were sent on November 5 and November 7 of that year.

“I am officer [name deleted] with the KSU PD. Your name has been referred to me and would just like to follow up with you real quick. At your convenience I can either meet with you at your residence [address deleted] or at KSUPD in Edwards Hall [address deleted]. It will just take a few minutes and we can get everything squared away. Please either call [number deleted] and leave me a message or email me your phone and we can arrange a time.

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.”

“I misstyped the address on the first request, [address deleted], please contact me as soon as possible to clear up this issue. We can meet at KSU Police Headquarters (Edwards Hall, [address deleted]) or at a location of your convenience. Please send a reply email with your phone number and preference of location and time.

Thank you for your cooperation,

[name deleted]”

On Tuesday, October 30, I went to meet with one of the teachers the complainant and I had had in common. While waiting for the teacher’s office hours, I ran into a friend from a club I was in who asked how I was doing. I replied, “I’m having the worst week of my life.” He said, “Come on, it can’t be that bad.” I told him, “I was almost expelled.” He said, “Apparently it can.” I would tell him the details at our club meeting that evening.

I told my former teacher everything that had happened. The teacher told me that the complainant had come to her with the same description as she gave to the dean. The teacher told me that she did not tell me about it because she thought I was possibly flirting with her and that was just a normal part of college. She also said she hadn’t witnessed anything suspect herself, noticed that the two of us sat in different parts of the classroom, and thought I was a good student. She said that in light of what had happened, she probably should have told me about the complaint at the time. I told her that if I ran into any more trouble with the Student Review Board I would have her write a note for me explaining all of this and she said she would. She then asked “Other than that, how are things going?” before adding, “Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?” I said, “I was going to say that.” At that point I broke down and almost cried, and it takes a lot for me to get to that point.