Scary Stuff in Essays

Cleaning out my files (I seem to do that a lot) I came across an essay that gave me the creeps. It gave me the creeps when the student first submitted it. The assignment was to produce a "Researched Opinion Paper." The student wrote a paper advocating torture and execution of sex offenders. Creepy enough when I say it that way, but the level of violence and anger in the writing led me to forward a copy to my supervisor and ask for his opinion. He thought that the student was just an immature blowhard. I hope he's right—we've seen plenty of media examples of people who gave out signals and then did terrible things to people.

Stuff I will report

Many students have been taught in high school that an English paper is the place to dump their deepest feelings and emotions—and that there's some sort of patient/counselor privilege in place, similar to what happens in a psychiatrist's office. Not so.

I'm going to refer anyone who seems to be sending signals about threats of violence and/or damage. If a student writes a suicide note or a threat to harm another person (or even University property), I'll send a copy to my supervisor for advice. It may turn out that the college has an interest in, for example, keeping a student from blowing up someone or something. These papers are not, after all, private messages. They aren't internal musings of a writer. They are public. Which brings up another issue:

Things you shouldn't write anyhow

Quite some time ago, a student wrote about being raped, then pleaded with me not to let anyone else in the class read it. I'm glad, in a way, that she trusted me and that she's dealing with her emotions, but that's not quite appropriate. I'd much rather have her talking to a counselor. I can't guarantee that the other members of the class who read this thing during peer editing will keep her secrets for her. I've had people discuss illegal acts, humiliating secrets, and stuff that's just too private. It's very tempting, when you discover the power of writing, to use it to begin a healing process in yourself. And I encourage you to do so. But do consider whether you want a couple dozen strangers to read your writing. If it's OK, then go ahead. If not, perhaps you should write something else for public consumption and put your private thoughts in a diary or journal. Not on a public blog.

On the other hand

This isn't to say you should always stay "safe." Last semester I asked my students to write a reaction to Andrew Sullivan's "The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage." One student wrote in support of Sullivan, and commented during class discussion that her father is gay and she wanted to make a statement in support of him. You don't have to "play nice" or always be safe. Just be sure that you want your writing to be read by a large group of strangers.