A recent video depicting an African American student being escorted from a classroom by the police has gone viral, due to the excessive response to her minor offence. The authorities were called to remove the woman from class simply because she "had her feet up".
The professor of a biology class at the University of Texas at San Antonio allegedly reported the student for acting in a 'uncivil' manner. The video was later shared on Twitter by UTSA student Apurva Rawal on Monday, and has since been viewed over four million times.
In follow-up tweets, he alleged that the professor, identified as Anita Moss, had made the call even though the student in question had not interrupted or otherwise disrupted the class in any way.
It is said that the professor had made points about the civility of students in their previous class, so it seems she used this stunt to illustrate her point further.
Another Twitter user, who goes by the handle of '@FavouritePaigeee' has since identified herself as the woman in the video, confirming that she was told that she needed to leave the room or be removed by the police.
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at UTSA Kimberly Andrews Espy has since confirmed that she, along with COS Interim Dean Howard Grimes, are aware of the incident, and are currently conducting an investigation into what exactly happened.
In addition to this, UTSA President Taylor Eighmy commented that more needs to be done "around issues of inclusivity and supporting our students of colour." His full statement reads:
"Today we had an incident where one of our African American students was escorted from a biology class by members of UTSA’s police department at the request of a faculty member. While the facts aren’t fully known regarding today’s incident, our Office of Equal Opportunity Services is already conducting an investigation into possible discrimination.
"In addition, an inquiry regarding the academic management of the classroom is being conducted by Interim Dean of the College of Sciences Howard Grimes. Beyond this particular incident, I am very much aware that the circumstance represents another example of the work we need to do as an institution around issues of inclusivity and supporting our students of colour.
"This concerns me greatly, and it’s incumbent upon us as an institution to face this head-on. It’s something that we need to address immediately as a university community. I look forward to the arrival of Dr. Myron Anderson, our new Vice President for Inclusive Excellence, to assist us with developing a strategy to address these systemic issues."
Moss, who is reportedly the senior lecturer on human physiology and anatomy at the university, is yet to release a comment.
