Throw away because I don’t want people that don’t know all of this to find out who I am, lol. Sorry for the long backstory but I think it’s necessary.
Ok so, I was getting lunch with a friend and a few of their friends. We all go to the same college, but they all have a different major than me. They are all studying Law. I am not.
One of them started complaining about a professor they have, calling him weirder than a normal Law Professor (think the prof from the Legally Blonde Musical, specifically the musical because it’s different from the movie!!). We looked him up on RateMyProfessors and were surprised that he actually had a 5. It’s 4 reviews, but still. I took note of his name, and when I went home I decided to look into him more because now I was curious.
First thing I found out is he’s a County Commissioner somewhere nearby. Second thing was a cringe video parodying John Wick. I suddenly understood the comment about weird.
I also found a reddit thread for an article about how he broke the law a few years ago and was able to self report to the state ethics board with no penalty?? He apparently was teaching an online class, for a completely different college, out of his County Commissioners office. A little more digging and I found out it was a college in another state, and as an apology for teaching it out of his county office and not his home office he donated the money to a local chapter of the naacp…. Even more digging found it was a historical black college and he coincidentally chose to donate the money after he was caught!
All of this rubs me the wrong way, especially the part where he didn’t actually face any consequences to what is basically stealing from taxpayers, while he posts a lot about taxes stealing from people. Man was running an entire class out of his county office and all he got was a slap on the wrist!
Now to the part where there’s an actual question about me being an asshole!
Professors, tenured or not, are not allowed to teach at other colleges without permission where I go. He not only did that, but at a college in a different state while breaking the law.
I want to report him to the college. Everything aside, this is a guy who is teaching law classes to law students! And he broke the law to teach one of them! I don’t know if he got permission or not, but if he didn’t I feel like the college has a right to know. I just don’t want to potentially fuck up my friend, and their friends, classes if the college wasn’t aware of this. I haven’t asked them for their opinion yet, but I would hope they would be on board.
So, tldr.
A friend’s professor broke the law while teaching a law class. Would I be the asshole if I reported him to the college for it?
Edit
I worded some things wrong and it didnt come across, sorry.
He was teaching the out of state class while he was also a professor where I go. Hes been a professor here for like, 15 years.
He also was teaching out of his county office during normal buisness hours. It wasn’t "after work" or anything like that.
It’s college policy that they can’t teach somewhere else, it’s not a law saying they can’t. The law comes into play with the teaching out of his Commissioner Office during work hours.
This is in Ohio
YTA
Leave him alone….
For fuck sakes his “crime” is he taught a class somewhere else. Ohhhh the horror
Not he murdered someone. You clearly need to get some hobbies if this is what you are focused on
Going out of the way to screw over the professor of a friend of a friend isn’t winning any points either.
Seriously…
Op needs to focus on real issues not whatever this it
There’s a lot you don’t know here, and I’m more concerned by the fact that you haven’t any idea what tree you’re barking up. First, you don’t give us a critical piece of information vis-à-vis teaching a class from his county office. And you didn’t provide this nugget because, again, you don’t seem to have a full understanding of the situation. *WHEN* in the day did he teach it? If he was making money elsewhere when he was on the taxpayers’ dime (huge no-no) that’s a very different situation than if he simply stayed after the workday was over and used the workplace’s computer to Zoom with the students (arguably might run afoul of some rules, but definitely not as serious).
>Professors, tenured or not, are not allowed to teach at other colleges without permission where I go.
Says who? Where are you? This makes no sense. Also, how are you in college but your friends are studying for the bar?
>he chose to donate the money after he was caught!
Yeah? And? The scenario seems like he actually didn’t intentionally break the law, but he might’ve inadvertently bent the rules too much per my above discussion.
As for the professor who teaches at an HCBU donating the money to the NAACP… Ok. What of it? That’s about as scandalous as the Pope donating money to the Catholic Church.
You don’t know what you don’t know. Finally, you say he didn’t face consequences, but you also list the consequences and describe them as a slap on the wrist. Spoiler alert: in law, you don’t get interject yourself into the process just because you don’t like the outcome. YWBTA
YTA. This is weird, nosey behavior on your part. If you were able to find this info so easily with a Google search, I’m sure it’s something his employers are already aware of.
Agreed, OP is coming off as much more of a creep than the professor.
YWBTA. I thought this was going to be something serious like sex harassment or changing grades. It’s none of your business. Go sweep around your own steps before you talk about other folks housekeeping.
YWBTA
He did something he wasn’t supposed to, got caught, and faced the consequences (whether you agree with them or not). More importantly, I can almost guarantee that the law school knows about his “crimes” and hired him anyway. As to his other behavior, while it may be weird, it doesn’t seem to be anything that is unethical.
I mean good sleuthing skills, but use them for actual good.
He’s “weird?” And that means it’s surprising that he has good ratings as a teacher? It is possible that other students appreciated what he was teaching, even if he wasn’t the “coolest” guy around. It honestly sounds juvenile that your group connected “weird” to “bad teacher.”
He also reported himself – very possible he didn’t realize what he was doing was wrong. Like honestly “you cannot teach out of your county office, because that’s stealing taxpayer money!” Sounds ridiculous. It’s not like the tax payers are going to be using that office for other things when he goes home to teach out of his home office.
I agree that personal business should be separated from government business, so for best practice, he should teach at his own home, but I honestly think that’s [it is not] anything worth losing a job over.
You’re going way overboard here, just because you think a professor…. one you’ve never actually met… isn’t as cool as you think he should be.
Yta. Pretty sure his job as a commissioner is salaried. He didn’t cheat the taxpayers of anything. They get paid by doing the job, not by the hour. Grow up.
YWBTA
You have to be mentally stunted to think like this. Honestly. Your logic is non-existent and your brain seems to be floating around somewhere in space **far** from the realm of reality that we live in.
You quite literally have no clue what happened. You have nothing to report. In fact, if you do, I wouldn’t be surprised if at the least you get a talking to and a mark on your student record, and at worst you get a suspension. The faculty will not take it well that you’re trying to get one of them in trouble over something like this and you will damage your reputation with *all* faculty — which will follow you, and should because holy fuck you want to try to blow this guys life’s up **and you don’t even know what for**.
YWBTA
You need to get a life, a hobby, grow up fast and seriously stop fixating on something that has zero to do with you.
If you’re the sort of person who likes to try and cause trouble for others because you don’t like something about them I urge you to look into your own behaviour. What you do to others, they can do to you and will.
YTA why are you stalking a stranger?
YTA – what a waste of time and invasion of privacy stalking this poor random guy. He’s not even your teacher? This feels like an effort to prove something – if you’re uncomfortable your friends are studying law and you aren’t, or you legitmately have a passion for social justice, there are far healthier ways to address your issues than stalking a stranger.