Timeline for As a TA, how to react if I come across a Facebook group in which students insult me?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
15 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 15, 2015 at 7:45 | comment | added | yota | @KyleStrand please relax, insult or injury have to reach a broad audience (public media) or touch a recipient of a governmental function (cop, civil servant, judge) to hope for something more than a dismiss in court. | |
| Oct 15, 2015 at 7:20 | comment | added | user9646 | @KyleStrand You misread. Offensive speech directed at someone that doesn't attribute any fact to that someone is illegal. So if I say "you're a horrible person" (or a worse insult), yes, you can technically sue me over this (though I wish you good luck if you actually expect any substantial consequences). If I said something like "you're a thief and you stole my 20€ bill", that would be defamation if it's false. | |
| Oct 14, 2015 at 22:28 | comment | added | zibadawa timmy | @KyleStrand Having lived in France for a year, I relay to you the following fact about France that many of its natives relayed to me: "This is really a communist country." | |
| Oct 14, 2015 at 16:25 | comment | added | Kyle Strand | Hurtful speech is illegal in France even if it's factually accurate? I am so very glad not to live there.... | |
| Oct 14, 2015 at 14:28 | comment | added | yota | Well, this point is tricky but, in France : if it can factually and precisely be proved right or wrong it is defamatory, else it's insulting. "dumbass" may be right (if he's really a dumbass) but too vague, hence insulting... which is nice because defamation is a much more serious matter :) law makers, judges and lawyers are funny geeks which love those kinds of word plays. | |
| Oct 14, 2015 at 13:55 | comment | added | user9646 | @yota BTW, you cut off part of the definition of "injure". The full one is (my translation) "Every offensive expression, of contempt/scorn or insult that does not contain any attribution of a fact, is an injure". So if the insult was in fact something like "The TA dresses badly", too bad, that doesn't fall under "injure", because it's attributing some fact to the TA. At best it's defamation/libel. | |
| Oct 14, 2015 at 13:52 | comment | added | user9646 | @fkraiem Have you interacted with young students recently? They're not exactly the most respectful people out there... Of course they would respond to any kind of poll to say "of course we must be respectful", but what one answers in such a poll and practice is not really the same... | |
| Oct 14, 2015 at 13:42 | comment | added | fkraiem | @NajibIdrissi We may live in different realities. I would expect the university, as well as the majority of students, to side with the professor and reaffirm that they value respect. | |
| Oct 14, 2015 at 13:41 | comment | added | yota | you can teach them the law :) we call it "rappel à la loi", or "remainder of the law", one tool available to a prosecutor, which looks like a kind of official sermon. Efficiency with no harm :) | |
| Oct 14, 2015 at 13:35 | comment | added | user9646 | @fkraiem Um, I'm not sure. I think your reputation would be that of someone who sues other people for insulting him/her. I'm relatively sure that after that, you can expect anonymous insult letters in the mail, and that students will continue to insult you behind your back, without leaving a paper trail but certainly more fiercely. I have no doubt that they will find ways to mess with you and for which you cannot retaliate. I am also not sure the university would be happy to be known as a university where instructors sue students for something that, after all, is relatively petty. | |
| Oct 14, 2015 at 13:32 | comment | added | fkraiem | @NajibIdrissi Your reputation is that of someone who doesn't let himself being trampled over. | |
| Oct 14, 2015 at 13:28 | comment | added | user9646 | So you've "taught" them something (debatable). What is your reputation after that? | |
| Oct 14, 2015 at 13:25 | comment | added | yota | I agree on all points ! except the first one... since it may ends with a 1 € fine and a written apology, it could be an interesting way to teach them something. Any judge will be smart enough to know when to repress or educate :) | |
| Oct 14, 2015 at 13:14 | comment | added | user9646 | I think that suing the students over this would probably be one of the worst options possible. (Another point: 12 000€ is the maximum fine, it's entirely possible to be condemned to a mere symbolic 1€ fine and maybe a written apology...) | |
| Oct 14, 2015 at 13:10 | history | answered | yota | CC BY-SA 3.0 |