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Georgia State University (GSU) professor Carissa Gray called the police on two Black students for arriving to class late, prompting outrage from the students’ peers on TikTok.
TikTok creator and college student Bria Blake posted about the incident on Wednesday evening. In the video, which has 116,000 likes and counting, she says a couple of her classmates were two minutes late to an English class.
The punctual professor, whom Blake named as Ms. Gray, requested the duo leave due to their lateness, according to NBC News.
GSU will respond to the incident.
Georgia State University said it’s reviewing the incident, elaborating, “We are looking into this matter and how it was handled by the faculty member. Campus police arrived after being called by the faculty member and immediately de-escalated the situation between the students and faculty member,” the school said in a statement. “Clearly, no crime had been committed so there were no arrests.”
According to Blake’s retelling, one of the two students in question said that they”paid to be here” and refused to leave. Professor Gray then left the room and later returned with two armed police officers.
All skinfolk ain’t kinfolk
“Stuff like this cannot keep happening to Black youth in America,” Blake said. “Stop weaponizing the police against Black people.”
When a Black Professor calls the police on Black students over tardiness, much like the Titanic’s iceberg, there is much more beneath the surface. Whether she’s in a sunken place or deathly serious about being on time, Professor Gray saw these two Black students as out-of-line, disrespectful, or combative and knew that bringing officers to the scene would immediately exacerbate the confrontation further.
While Georgia State University’s student code of conduct does have policies against classroom “disruptive behavior,” the school policy also states that an instructor may summon campus police to remove a student whose behavior “poses an immediate threat to the safety” of themself, the instructor, or other students. Arriving to class two minutes late doesn’t constitute such a threat.
Who knew Karens came in Black?
A Georgia State University representative said that policy refers to extreme behavior that may endanger others in the classroom. Calling the campus police over tardiness or other disrespectful behavior, the representative said, is not typical of university faculty.
According to Blake, both students were “terrified of what could happen to them” when Gray called the police, not knowing how the interaction may play out. Given the historically strained relationship between Black youth and police, the fact that both students are alive to tell the story remains a traumatic yet fortunate outcome.
What irresponsible reporting. You only know half the story and are making a lot assumptions. Obviously there is a backstory and context around disruptive behavior here. Also, GSU campus security are already in the building; that’s literally who faculty are directed to go to if a student is disruptive…it’s not like the professor actually called off-campus police as you are implying.
does not matter, a gun was called into the classroom for students 2 minutes late and whose clock are we looking at the professors, the students or the clock on the wall, which one is correct?? This has happened to me, the supervisor, when guys are late, I always give them the benefit of the doubt and tell them to try to be early, or not do overtime, where the bulk of money is made in the maritime industry, calling others to solve my problems is not a good sign of leadership
Erybody be on deh same eekwal digital time now dickwipe.
I’m confused. Why does any student of any color/ race feel that they have the right to challenge a professor in that professor’s classroom? THAT is the issue. THAT has been the issue for quite a while. No respect for authority.
Tom, you must be a jackass or something. They were 2 minutes late. And so if we were to follow your argument, it would follow that being 2 minutes late = no respect for authority? Tom you sound batshit insane. Go f#ck yourself. You sound like you are a racist. Are you a racist Tom? Because I’m not that confused when it comes to calling you out on your sickening comment.
Tom! I’m a Professor and I have yet to or know any colleagues who “own” a classroom! You must be an extremist or supremest. Got it! May the GOD of the Children repay you without mercy.
The English instructor “owns” the lesson plan and the 50 minute block of contact instructional time in which to properly employ them. Presumably there were other students who arrived to class on time, prepared and interested in her lecture. And, like their two smart-ass classmates, they presumably “paid to be there”. What sort of respect do the others deserve? ‘Splain dat to us all as if we wuz all chillren, please. Yu dah profe, so have at it.
PLOT TWIST-The professor is a black woman……….not an evil white racist Karen.
We all know that… Not sure why this is a new discovery for you…
There has never been any benefit to black women being loyal to the black race. Black women have the highest murder, sexual assault and domestic abuse rates among all groups of women committed predominately by black men…….with those kinds of rates, why should any black woman should any loyalty to another black person? Why? Give me a good reason why black women should ignore all the violence and poverty inflicted upon black women to be loyal to the black race?
Yall are disgusting to suggest that a black woman be loyal to a group that is doing everything in it’s powered to cause the extinction of black women.
YAVENAY SANCHEZ
YAVENAY SANCHEZ you pathetic trash. You judge all black men off the actions of the minority but you say nothing about the thousands of white women being murdered as we speak on ukraine by white boys.
You coddle black women as if they don’t kill each other and have a hand in black murders but setting men and WOMEN up. And as you so arrogantly type that bullsh#t. You ignore how black women helped white boys and women destroy the black family. You and all back stabbing worthless black females with no loyalty are garbage. You’re a worthless and everyone like you and that agrees with you is worthless
Yavenay might have some loyalties to some La RAZA vato, but that doesn’t necessarily invalidate her observations in the overall Bell Curve statistical sense.
But you are correct about the situation in Ukraine.
This comment section did not pass the vibe check. How tf would you feel if you were rushing to class and were almost on time just to get the cops called on you for being two minutes late. What is two minutes going to change out of the curriculum? We literally go into debt to attend college. Two minutes is not worth endangering and traumatizing your students. If she had such a problem with it she should’ve talked to them after class or sent an email instead of calling the cops on them. It’s so irresponsible and such a waste of everyone’s time.