Page 13 - IAV Digital Magazine #545

Professor Allegedly Calls Cops On Two Students For Being Late To Class
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
A Georgia State University profes- sor allegedly called the campus police to remove a pair of students who were late to class.
According to NBC News.com, Professor Carissa Gray contacted police after asking the tardy students to leave her
class. The stu-
dents, “Taylor” and “Kamryn,” are black — as is Gray.
Bria Blake (a GSU student according to
the Daily
Mail) emphasizes in a TikTok
video from Wednesday that the lateness was the catalyst for Gray calling secu- rity. However, she
later says the pair refused Gray’s request to leave class because they had “paid to be [there].”
So, the issue wasn’t that the pair were late, it was their defi- ance.
Nevertheless, Blake rips the cops’ actions such as taking
possession of Taylor’s belong- ings “until she agreed to leave.” She said Taylor believed Gray called police in “retaliation” for an incident between the two from earli- er in the semes- ter. She doesn’t elaborate on what had transpired.
Both Taylor and Kamryn alleged- ly began
crying during the incident and were “terrified of what could happen to them.”
“Stuff like this cannot keep hap- pening to Black youth in America,” Blake says in her video. “Stop weaponizing the police against Black people [...] Calling the police
on two students for being two min- utes late to class is extremely unreasonable and dangerous.”
According to the Georgia State University Code of Conduct, staff may contact cam- pus police if a student “poses an immediate threat to the safety” of him or herself or others. It’s not clear if Professor Gray believed this to be the case.
According to the NBC report, a GSU “representa- tive” said the poli- cy in question is for “extreme” and “endangering” behavior. Contacting securi- ty for “other disre- spectful behavior” is out of the ordi-
nary, the rep added.
The university said it was inves- tigating the mat- ter: “Campus police arrived after being called by the faculty member and immediately de- escalated the sit- uation between the students and faculty member. Clearly, no crime had been commit- ted so there were no arrests.”
The
Telegraph reports Gray no longer is teaching in-per- son classes, and that the provost and campus police chief “have reached out to meet with the affected stu- dents.”
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine