update: at what point can I report my inappropriate and inflammatory coworker?

by Alison Green on March 5, 2025

Remember the letter-writer wondering at what point they could report their inappropriate and inflammatory coworker? Here’s the update.

I finally quit so now I can update. One of the details I was obfuscating before was that we’re both student workers in our 20s at a post-secondary institution. Unfortunately, I couldn’t apply too much of your advice because things got CRAZY basically immediately after, but I still greatly appreciated the advice and the sanity check from you and everyone who commented.

My question got posted the week before U.S. election day. The first words Kevina said when she walked in the office that Monday were, “I’m preparing for election day by stocking up on ammo!” She then spent the rest of that day and the next giving the impression that she was looking forward to someone “trying something” so she would have the opportunity to use said ammunition. She also said something along the lines of “buying the good kind that destroys flesh” with a weird smile. And said the quickest way to clean up our office decorations would be to “set them on fire and let it spread,” also with a weird smile.

So I pulled my boss aside on Wednesday and basically said what I said above, that I’ve taken school shooting and workplace violence prevention training and I’m feeling very uncomfortable and like if I didn’t say anything I’d be potentially culpable. My boss seems appalled and concerned and agrees Kevina isn’t the most stable person so the workplace violence concern isn’t unreasonable. Off we go to HR where she handles the talking but is vague and HR says that they’re a satellite location and just do paperwork but since she’s a student we should go talk to the dean of students. We go to the dean of students’ office and are told that she’s not there today and my boss says she’ll just text her. We go back to the office and get back to work.

End of the day, my boss sends me a message basically saying that I (me, the part-time student worker, of course) have three avenues of reporting this and says she can help me with one of them the next day if I really want her to. I say, “Please help me with this tomorrow morning,” and she says, “Of course.” GUESS WHO ISN’T ON CAMPUS THE NEXT DAY! My boss had a meeting on a different campus and then didn’t respond to me asking what was happening until the office was closed that day. Turns out she didn’t text anyone even though she said she would AND she was going on vacation the next day and wouldn’t be back until the Monday after next. So the next day, I call the campus police and they don’t care because it wasn’t specific intent to do harm and I guess repeatedly stating she wants to bring a gun on campus doesn’t mean anything. They didn’t even want her name. but I can call them back if she actually brings a gun. So then I go back to the dean of students’ office and tell all this to someone there and they say they will report it but investigations take months and blah blah blah.

So I keep working, ignoring this coworker who is much quieter than normal, probably because my boss said something to her again. And then she starts complaining that a student in one of her classes made a complaint against her to the dean of students’ office because, for a class presentation, she acted out killing herself with a butter knife to stand in for a real one and that made them uncomfortable. According to Kevina, the professor had okayed this demonstration so I kinda get the upset at the complaint, but then Kevina starts talking about how she’s worried the person who made the complaint will attack her and how she and her mom want to get a lawyer so they can find the identity of the person who complained. Because people are so sensitive these days and you never know what they’ll do. So I went back to the dean of students’ office and said that this is concerning to me as someone who has made a complaint since all of Kevina’s gun fantasies she talks about are her “defending herself” and she’s making herself out to be a victim here. Nothing comes from that complaint either that I can see, but I was able to change my schedule so my shifts never overlapped with hers again.

After that, she made a huge scene at an all-staff event specifically to embarrass one (full-time, non-student) coworker. That coworker then ALSO made a complaint against her with a different dean. Other coworker says that, as a result, Kevina will have to do some sensitivity training and might have this noted in her file. So Kevina still has her job. The other coworker finally was able to transfer to another department, so I probably won’t be able to get any updates on this situation unless Kevina ends up on the news. Thinking about writing this update kept me sane while continuing to work there and got me to today, moving onto my next opportunity which will hopefully transition into a full-time job after I get my degree.

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  1. Michigander*

    So disappointing that she hasn’t faced any real repercussions yet, but I’m glad that at least you’re out.

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    1. Natasha*

      Unfortunately, this kind of inaction-bordering-on-neglect is extremely typical for academia, which infamously has some of the most intransigent and useless bureaucracy in the working world. Glad the letter-writer is getting away, at least.

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      2. Academic Physics*

        Yup! And as the LW experienced there are often 4 possible places to report this work to, but it’s not clear which is appropriate, and they can all claim that the other is the ‘correct’ one. The only place I’ve seen it work well-ish is when a university has a “I’m concerned” form that incorporates all of these departments.

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      3. datamuse*

        Came here to say this. I was in academia for 18 years, and the one time someone actually got fired while I was there it was astonishing.

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        1. nannynonny*

          yeah, even when I had student workers who were literally sleeping on the job, I was expected to just not let them come back in future semesters.

          The only one who got fired was the student worker who was convicted of attempted murder. And then only after her sentencing (not even after her conviction!)

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        2. AnotherOne*

          I work in academia (on the administrative side) and it was joke for years that it was impossible to be fired.

          I’m currently hiring and one of things I’m glad I’ve been able to make clear to people is that we actually have good management in our department. That means they’re willing to handle problem people- so someone like Kevina would be pretty promptly fired in our office. (How do I know? Well, let’s just say a new hire made an inappropriate joke at an office event. They were not working here 2 days later.)

          And they back us up- if someone isn’t treating us appropriately, they’ll step in. It’s a huge thing.

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      4. Varthema*

        I get that but even still I’m astounded that they’re not more skittish about the threats of violence, especially with zero-tolerance policies. When I was in college (I was a senior for the VA Tech shooting, though I didn’t go there), one student was suspended and later expelled for MUCH MUCH less.

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      1. Georgia Carolyn Mason*

        Well, she sounds a lot like the folks now running the country, but you never know. I hope you’re right!

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    4. Observer*

      So disappointing that she hasn’t faced any real repercussions yet, but I’m glad that at least you’re out.

      Very much this.

      LW, I hope you come back with another update on your new job where you are absolutely rocking it.

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  2. learnedthehardway*

    Kevina is a poster child for the axiom my grandmother used to utter: “Some people need more help than others.”

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  3. Enough*

    No one is doing this person any favors. However I don’t know how you get her into some type of therapy.

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    1. HE Admin*

      It’s EXTREMELY difficult to help some of the students that need it the most. In my time in higher ed we’ve had a couple of students who very clearly had some deeply held paranoid delusions, but of course they can’t see that they are paranoid delusions–their brain literally won’t allow them to see it. (I’m talking “my ex-boss from ten years and multiple countries ago is spying on me through my printer in order to ruin my life” type stuff.) And even though we HAVE resources to help students with medical and mental health, and things that cross between those two, you can’t FORCE someone to utilize them and they won’t utilize those resources if they believe that they don’t actually have an (internal) problem. And then you try to just get them through their coursework so that AT LEAST they can get their degree and have something to show for it, but they say they can’t do their courses because their ex-boss from ten years and multiple countries ago has paid other students in their classes to spy on them and ruin their life… There are no easy solutions to some things.

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      1. Madame Desmortes*

        I teach information security in higher ed. I now have a slide in my course introduction that says bluntly that we’ll be discussing risks a lot, risks many folks won’t have considered, and if that could cause or exacerbate a mental-health issue for someone, it might be wise for them to drop the class.

        Because I sure do have stories too.

        I have found, though, that the threat assessment team in my institution is smart and uncompromising. OP, it could be worth checking whether your institution has such a team.

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    2. Mesquito*

      If someone could just sit them down and be like “have you ever actually been in these situations or done these things before, because I have, and you can an unrealistic relationship to these ideas” I think it would go a long way. It wouldn’t address an underlying cause but it would be a kindness for someone to point out that they aren’t coming off the way they want to and could maybe stop the comments.

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  4. Nony nony nony*

    “See something, say something” is a great platitude, but unfortunately this is often how it ends up.

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    1. Clorinda*

      I wonder if this truly bizarre apathy to Kevina’s May Day parade of flags might have a sexist component. she’s a woman, workplace shooters are hardly ever female, so this is not a serious problem?

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      1. hotg0ss*

        I would guess there’s also some ablism at work here- the inability to see a person with a disability as a threat, sexual or otherwise, is pretty common.

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        2. br_612*

          Yup. And since she’s autistic, there’s likely a “this is a sign of her autism and therefore we can’t say anything”. But really the only part of this that might be autism is the inability to read the room. You can be both autistic and an awful human. Being autistic doesn’t negate or even mitigate the latter.

          You can absolutely tell an autistic person “Don’t ask the delivery drivers and couriers if they’re single. They are just here to do their job and that is sexual harassment. You need to stop doing that immediately” and it’s wild people acted like that would somehow not be okay just because she’s autistic.

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          1. Moose*

            I’ve known some people like Kevina (who were probably also autistic/otherwise neurodivergent) who have gotten away with a frightening amount of BS for a long time because nobody wanted to believe they were being assholes on purpose. People would very carefully explain why Not Doing whatever bad behavior it was was necessary, and they would say “oh well I just don’t know how to read the room!” But at a certain point, 1) reading the room is no longer required because everyone has told you in plain words that you are being unpleasant and you are still refusing to change, or 2) it ceases to matter whether it was on purpose or not because the impact either way is not fair to everyone else. Even if Kevina’s actions were genuinely caused by autism (which, as br_612 says, is almost certainly not the case), at this point it really wouldn’t matter! You still shouldn’t be allowed to sexually and otherwise harass others regardless.

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        3. MigraineMonth*

          I would actually be surprised if this was the case for autism.

          Our culture assumes a strong and direct link between mental conditions and violent behavior that isn’t actually backed up by evidence. Think of the conflation between psychosis and violent behavior, when people in psychotic episodes are far more likely to be injured or killed themselves than hurt others.

          Neurodivergence like autism can be misinterpreted as mental illness. Many autistic traits, such as flat affect, shutting down in stressful situations and not making eye contact, are unfortunately interpreted as signs of psychopathy by the criminal justice system.

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        4. goddessoftransitory*

          Reminds me of all those old movies that have a clearly dangerous/leery local handyman or similar that’s menacing the heroine and everyone insists he’s “harmless as a pup.” Because why listen to the woman who’s being peeped on, followed, and otherwise existing and thus somehow provoking him?

          *Extra points if said guy lives in a shack covered with girlie pictures cut out of magazines*

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      2. Mallory Janis Ian*

        It probably is at play here, but we also had a male student at my university who was in his fifth year as an undergrad in a 5-year professional program (so the class size was small and the students were all together in their cohort most days of the week). Multiple students reported him making paranoid statements, including comments about harming himself or some vague someone else, and he was talked to and checked on, but nothing much other than that was done. He eventually ended up sending out a Tweet that he was going to (content warning: Violence)
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        blow up the building where the other students were in studio, and as everyone saw the Tweet, multiple people started calling 911 and their faculty members and the Dean’s office all at once. When faculty and staff started getting the students’ calls, many of us also started calling 911. Campus and city police ended up evacuating the campus and securing the surrounding area. The young man was found in his apartment and apparently he did have some weapons and explosive devices (I don’t remember what-all, just that he had some).

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    2. Strive to Excel*

      Setting aside the obvious problems of racial & gender bias, which *is* sadly a problem, and general incompetence, there’s a larger challenge with this sort of behavior detection.

      A lot of our systems, digital and interpersonal, are tuned to ignore ‘background noise’ – kinda the opposite of the Scunthorpe problem. An example of the interpersonal: it’s very easy to hear someone ranting about something and assume “they’re having a bad day/they’re talking about a video game or something/they’re just venting”. Generally, people don’t want to report people for one-off bad days. You need to have a pattern of consistent reports to show that no, it’s not a one-off bad day. No one wants to be the one incorrectly labelled as a problem, so they’re wary about over-enthusiastically labelling others as problems.

      This presents a new problem: if you constantly make reports about one person, you run the risk of being perceived as being a complainer or harasser, especially if the small stuff is individually not worth reporting. You can solve this by having some form of anonymous reporting system, but that opens it up to abuse by having people file false reports. Then you go back to your original problem of people being inaccurately labeled harassers.

      You also have the problem of needing to collate and weigh all the various reports. This is less of an issue if you’re on a 4-coworker team and can report directly to your manager. If you’re on a college campus, it’s a much bigger issue – and as seen above, if there’s 4 different places behavior can be reported that don’t talk to each other, fragmentation of information gets added to your pile of problems.

      Finally: fear of lawsuits. Not even losing lawsuits, just having to deal with a lawsuit. Because they are overcomplicated and expensive.

      Kevina should still have been fired for *any* of these incidents because they are *bananapants*.

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  5. Elle Woods*

    What a nightmare. I’m glad you’re out of there. It’s really unfortunate that Kevina hasn’t faced any real consequences for her actions. Hopefully she will before someone is seriously injured (or worse).

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    1. Pastor Petty Labelle*

      Unfortunately it is going to take someone getting injured or worse before anyone says oh hey yeah maybe we should have done something about Kevina. Then when they are sued, all the previous complaints will come out.

      I really hope the school has a really good insurance policy because they are going to be paying out big time some day.

      Also autism isn’t an excuse to behave this way. Autistic people understand pretty clearly, you don’t joke about killing people.

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      1. Slow Gin Lizz*

        Yeah, I am not a doctor or psychologist, but it sounds like there’s a lot more going on with Kevina than just autism. I’m thinking of the people I’ve known who’ve had psychotic breaks and how many of those events aren’t just oners, there’s a lot of preamble leading up to it. (Ex: I had a “friend” in high school who out of the blue one day just punched me in the stomach. A few weeks later she was hospitalized for mental health issues.) But what to do about it…well, the only thing I can think of is calling her out on her BS, but that sounds like a pretty scary proposition.

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          1. Salty Caramel*

            I see autism being used by the powers that be as cop-out on giving Kevina consequences because they’re afraid of a discrimination lawsuit.

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      2. JSPA*

        No group of people is monolithic, and this is a person whose parents are apparently on board with feeding her sense of persecution, validating her completely unfettered self expression, and who may share some of her attitudes and traits. We can go as far as being sympathetic that she may not have been raised with or exposed to social norms and workplace norms, and may even have heard them mocked as something that real people don’t actually follow. (In much smaller ways, I’ll raise my own hand for that sort of upbringing.)

        But that’s irrelevant.

        She still has to act within the bounds of laws and regulations and instructions, whether or not she believes they are normal or not, reasonable or not, good for society or not. She does not have some absolute right of access to the institution, nor to the job.

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      3. Raggedy Anne is Tired*

        High Functioning or Level 1 Autistic People do. Someone at University and working a job would more than likely qualify for that category. Otherwise, autistic people are all different and have differing needs and abilities. Please don’t expect because you’ve met one Autistic person that you have met us all.

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      4. Tia*

        As an autistic woman myself I am furious that “but so and so is autistic” is an excuse for abysmal behaviour. Autism is a spectrum and I am not talking about low functioning people that end up screaming or yelling or having melt downs here. I am talking about people that can function by themselves in society i.e in employment or main stream education who make inappropriate comments or threats. I am not saying I have never said anything inappropriate not understanding but whenever someone has told me I hurt their feelings I have apologized and just not said that thing again. We may be awkward but we are perfectly capable of understanding “that hurts my feelings/isn’t appropriate/etc” and anyone who cannot is either weaponizing their autism or so low functioning they should be constantly supervised for their own safety (I mean if a neurotypical 5 year old can understand “that hurts my feelings please don’t do it again” you have to be pretty low functioning for this to be a legitimate excuse).

        I knew another autistic girl which I was in high school who constantly commented on other’s appearence and not in a complimentary fashion. She never got in trouble despite upsetting people as “autistic people are just blunt”. I had a friend who had self harm scars and this girl would not leave her alone despite it clearly distressing her (I’m not great at reading emotions but my friend was leaving the lessons in tears and I am not that obtuse) so one day I called the other autistic girl fat and she burst into tears. I got told off and I just said “I’m autistic and autistic people are just blunt” and the teachers had to either admit they were lazy and didn’t want to deal with her and were letting her be a bully at the rest of the classes expense rather than deal with potential awkwardness, or let me get away with it. Autistic people can be manipulative like anyone else, that girl was as she liked getting away with hurting people and so was I in my response. Everytime she made a hurtful comment to me or anyone else I made one back. I never did it unprompted only if she made one first (I did pepper in some “nice” comments for others in the class e.g “I like your new hair cut” so I could say I didn’t just comment on her appearence) but I only said nasty things to her and only if she said something first. And the teachers (who knew exactly what I was doing it was obvious) could not say a thing about it without admitting they had failed to protect us from bulling (and failed her too as by this point we all hated her. When she first came to the school i thought we could be friends as we were both autistic girls the same age but she was so nasty I dismissed the idea quickly. I didn’t have many friends and lots of people thought I was weird but no one actively hated me). They couldn’t stop me without stopping her, and stopping her would result in tears and tantrums as she had been indulged by schools and by her parents until this point (and we were like 15) autism or not she could not understand a world that didn’t let her do whatever she wanted as that was her only experience as the adults around her failed her.

        She stopped after a few days of me shooting back. So she could learn all that time no one ever bothered to make her.

        A lot of autistic people are raised or educated (or both) by lazy people who do not understand autism and decide it is easier to go with it than raise a child properly or learn how to teach them and then they turn into adults that cannot function at all or who are very unpleasant to be around and expect the world to bend to them wheras most people, autistic or otherwise are often taught this isn’t the case as a child. A neurotypical child raised this way would also be a nightmare but that is less common as they are usually expected to be able to learn to behave.

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    2. Mallory Janis Ian*

      It always seems that nothing much is done until AFTER someone actually enacts their stated intentions to harm other people. It seems like people underestimate the signs or don’t believe that what they’re hearing or seeing is as serious as the ones that you hear about on the news? People would rather underreact than to overreact?

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      1. leftylanie*

        It comes down to our individualistic culture. We value self-determination and freedom of speech sometimes to the determinate of others. And how do you draw the line between “I’m going to hurt someone” in a time of frustration without real intent and “I’m going to hurt someone” with real intent? It’s messy and time consuming to evaluate the threat, all with the possibility of the threat-giver suing for unlawful detention or what have you. You can’t really know how serious someone is until they do something.

        Not to say that this is right. Mental health is seriously undertreated.

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        1. Old Bag*

          I think there’s also a component of “this couldn’t possibly be happening HERE to ME/us… I must be blowing this out of proportion… ” We’re trained to think of these kind of extreme situations as uncommon or unusual. Then add in the fear of being thought of as “dramatic” or “attention seeking.” And disbelief someone they actually *know* could, in reddit-speak, be “TA.”

          Sort of like how even very well read / educated / feminist positive women will often have difficulty when an accused assailant is some guy they’ve known for-ev-er and thought / think of as a brother. Sometimes it’s BS. But a lot of times it isn’t — but what’s more disconcerting (and this is coming from the non-believing women themselves– not those observing them) is how hard it is to believe their male super bestie could do such a thing.

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        2. Old Bag*

          That and a tendency to not believe people we *know* (regardless of whether or not we like them) can be capable of doing such things. Now add in a fear of being accused of being “dramatic” or “attention seeking.”

          I keep thinking of an article I read once by a very progressive woman talking about how she really had to check herself when a long time friend she thought of as a brother got charged with SA. All her feminist knowledge and humanity told her to believe the victim. But her gut wasn’t in it, because she “knew him.” She luckily did not defend him, because later it became pretty irrefutable that he was guilty as sin. But the article (omg I wish I could find it!) was about the whole we see assailants as “monsters” when they can be (and often are) the boy scouts next door too.

          Well, that kind of mentality can extend to people we don’t feel safe around — they are, after all, members of our community and we often see others accepting them (or seeming to do so — such as OP’s former coworkers and uni admin). So fighting the “this can happen HERE? to US? Is THIS what a threat actually looks like?” denial can be very challenging.

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          1. Katydid*

            One of my co-workers was trying to talk to me about terrorists and wasn’t I scared of terrorists and I looked at him and said, “Tom, statistically speaking as a white male in his 40s, you are way more likely to kill me than a terrorist.”
            Needless to say he did not appreciate that, but he did not try to talk to me about the “issues” ever again.

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            1. MigraineMonth*

              I once told a guy I didn’t feel comfortable going back to his dorm room alone with him, and he answered, “But we know each other!”

              I explained to him that was almost always the case.

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      2. Chirpy*

        I mean, I had a manager who wouldn’t listen to anyone’s complaints that a coworker was making threats and brandishing a knife until the guy finally threatened to kill the manager.

        Manager was a nice enough guy, but I think either didn’t know how to handle it, or thought everyone else was overreacting. (Manager also later got fired himself, one of the very few I’ve even heard of for this company. We never heard exactly why, but in retrospect he just wasn’t a good manager.)

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  6. pomme de terre*

    OMG I’m so sorry you went through all this! I also work at a college campus and usually a student threatening violence against themselves or others is taken VERY seriously by Student Affairs, campus police, HR, etc.

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    1. ArchivesPony*

      Exactly. I’ve dealt with it personally too (long story short, another student’s boyfriend threatened me over the phone with fake gunfire and the University took it extremely seriously). I would have kept raising it up the chain, so if the Dean of Students wasn’t taking it seriously, got to the provost and then president/chancellor if they didn’t either.

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      1. LW*

        Any emails to public facing emails go into one big system that she has complete access to and the system logs and summarizes phone calls too. A summary of any in person meeting would probably be entered as well. I don’t have a way to do anything else and know for sure she wouldn’t be able to see it.

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          1. bamcheeks*

            But on the flip side, I have employed student workers, and the bar for “students have access to sensitive information other students have submitted” should be INCREDIBLY high. Like, one-strike-and-you’re-out high. It is possible to have students working in roles where they have access to personal and/or sensitive information about other students, but you don’t mess around with people who demonstrate they aren’t taking that responsibility seriously! This is so wildly dysfunctional.

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            1. Wendy Darling*

              It is moderately to severely bananas that a student worker has that kind of access at all but it is absolutely pants-on-head ridiculous that repeated threats of violence and threats to retaliate against people who complain is not considered disqualifying for a student worker to have that kind of access.

              Unfortunately I AM familiar with university bureaucracies so none of this surprises me. :(

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        2. RedinSC*

          Does your school have an ombudsperson (ombudsman)? I have found going directly to them that it’s been helpful.

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          1. pomme de terre*

            Yes, an ombudsman or some kind of confidential resource, like a person from the counseling center or the gender-based violence office. Google “Confidential resources at [Your School]” and see what comes up. If your school has some kind of Office of Religious Life, there is probably a confidential person in that office (regardless of your religious affiliation) who is used to hearing people share tough stories and offering guidance.

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            1. pomme de terre*

              Also, if you talk to any of these resources, you can be a little vague about the details of what’s going on if you want to get some advice without triggering an official investigation. You don’t have to say, “Kevina, my co-worker at the XYZ Office, talked about bringing a gun to work on this date.” You can say, “a person that I come in frequent contact with has repeatedly talked about bringing a gun onto to campus. I tried going through official channels and it didn’t help. What should I do next?”

              Even confidential resources have to report certain things, and what Kevina’s doing might rise to those levels, but if you are vague about the details, they don’t have enough to report and therefore won’t.

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    2. Wednesday Wishing*

      seriously at this point maybe she should call the FBI and give them all of this information.

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    3. Tippy*

      That’s been my experience as well with law enforcement (the school had it’s own campus police) and student affairs.

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      1. Slow Gin Lizz*

        Yeah, it’s really bad that the campus police wouldn’t do anything when OP called them. If nothing else, they should have taken down Kevina’s name to get her in the system as a possible threat to campus security. I live near Boston and work for a university in the city and of course we take security extremely seriously. That OP’s school doesn’t is pretty appalling.

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        1. NeedsMoreCookies*

          When a university has its own police, there can be a perverse incentive for them to stonewall so that those campus crime stats stay attractively low.

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          1. MigraineMonth*

            Do the stats include “threatening behavior that may indicate future violence”?

            Either way, it seems like those stats would *definitely* include “violent assaults on campus that we didn’t bother to prevent”.

            *sigh*

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    4. Ellis Bell*

      As an educator, I’m appalled. This kind of response to a threat of violence will almost guarantee a tragedy. Telling an entry level employee, they’re not going to report it unless “I really want her to” is a sign to just get out of dodge. It’s just basic negligence of the people in her care. I’m curious where OP got her training, because it doesn’t sound like it happened at this job.

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      1. Slow Gin Lizz*

        Do you mean where OP’s manager got her training? As a student worker I don’t think OP should be shouldering the responsibility here, even though OP is obviously doing a lot to try to protect those around Kevina.

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        1. Hlao-roo*

          I think Ellis Bell is referring to this part of the update (from the 3rd paragraph):

          I’ve taken school shooting and workplace violence prevention training and I’m feeling very uncomfortable and like if I didn’t say anything I’d be potentially culpable

          OP has been trained, and trained well it sounds like. OP’s manager is being negligent, so it doesn’t sound like OP was trained at this job (because then presumably OP’s manager would also be trained and would have acted more responsibly when presented with this information about Kevina).

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          1. Slow Gin Lizz*

            Thank you for clearing up my confusion! Now I get it. Yes, it does sound like OP has a *lot* more training than their manager has and like the school doesn’t do any of this kind of training for their workers or managers. Not that I want people to have to need it, but ignoring the fact that it can happen only means that no one knows what to do when it does happen, not that it doesn’t happen.

            Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is it’s good that OP keeps pursuing this, but I think we can all agree here in the Commentariat that at this point, OP, you shouldn’t feel like you’re going to be culpable if something happens. I really hope it won’t, but you are the last person I’d blame for anything going down.

            Reply ↓
            1. bamcheeks*

              Well, it can also just be bad management. Everyone can do the training that says, “escalate this to the person with authority to act”, but if the person with authority to act says, “meh, sounds complicated, I’d rather not” then you’re a bit stuck unless you’ve got robust alternative reporting lines in place.

              Reply ↓
  7. anon for this advice*

    OP: Even though you’re away from Kevina right now, I’d suggest you get in touch with the president’s office and the institution’s board of trustees if you can find out how to contact them. It’s often on the main website.

    Include that she’s made multiple comments about guns, ammo, and burning down the office, threatened to legally target a student who was upset about her acting out suicide in a class,* and made a scene at an all-staff event directed at a full-time employee, and threatened to bring a gun on campus. Include that she was disciplined for the scene so it’s in her file as a record.

    But campus security and the dean’s office don’t seem to take their own campus shooter/workplace violence training seriously so you don’t know who else to alert for campus safety and you don’t want anyone to get hurt.

    Stay safe and good luck.

    *Unless it was an acting class, I’m having a hard time thinking of a pedagogical reason for that.

    Reply ↓
    1. KeinName*

      Very helpful suggestions! Its infuriating how OP was fobbed off and sent around in circles. That’s also a characteristic of universities I feel, and it’s unbelievable that an employee wouldn’t have a clear line of responsible people over her, and instead you get sent to several different deans.

      Reply ↓
      1. constant_craving*

        Generally, universities do often send people around in circles.

        However, it is very unusual for that to happen in a situation like this, where violence is being threatened.

        Reply ↓
      2. goddessoftransitory*

        It’s the embodiment of “We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas” as official policy.

        Reply ↓
    2. Damn it, Hardison!*

      And the General Counsel’s Office (Legal) as well. This is a legal liability that is not being addressed.

      Reply ↓
      1. anon for this advice*

        Very good point! LW, amending my suggestions to include this.

        Also, if public-facing emails/calls go into a system that Kevina has access to, then that’s even more alarming. But you can mail hard copy directly to the president’s office and to legal counsel’s office pointing out that Kevina has access to the email system and call logs so you don’t feel safe using those communications channels. Also that you don’t feel safe being identified as a complainant.

        Reply ↓
    3. LW*

      Contacts with a public facing email or phone number would be attached to my student profile, summarized or attached in it’s entirety, and entered into a system she has complete access to. Not a risk I’m willing to take

      Reply ↓
      1. anon for this advice*

        LW, we were cross-typing. Hard copy direct to the president’s office will not be attached to your student profile.

        I truly understand your concern from experience. And you need to stay safe.

        But Kevina is not an all-seeing, all-knowing goddess. If she’s a student worker — even if she’s now FT staff? — there are ways to circumvent her that any competent person in the president’s office will know. (Before people snark, I have known more competent people in those offices than not.) If the board of trustees gets wind of this, they also have ways to circumvent her.

        Please take care of yourself.

        Reply ↓
        1. Jules the 3rd*

          ” Hard copy direct to the president’s office will not be attached to your student profile.”

          The only way to guarantee that is if LW sends it anonymously, which lowers the credibility of LW’s report. Anything sent with LW’s name carries the risk of being attached. If my life depended on someone I don’t know being competent, I would not risk that either.

          We really need to trust LW that they have thought through the risk / benefit options.

          Reply ↓
      2. I'm great at doing stuff*

        Does the uni have an ombudsmen? The large private uni that I work at does, and unlike HR and other avenues does keep things confidential. They are there to help with issues that no one else can or will. They might not be able to do anything directly, but could at least listen and maybe point you in a direction you haven’t tried yet.

        Reply ↓
      4. JSPA*

        Anonymous letters are rarely the right answer–nor going through an untraceably-linked third party– but this might be a time and a place.

        It might also help if your suggestion is that she be put into a role where she does not have access to personal documents, nor the public, nor unsupervised access to coworkers at her level or below until she passes training and behavioral probation, and mention that this is for her own sake as well as for everyone around her… rather than demanding she be fired. “Someone wants these actions to stop” lands differently than “someone wants me gone.”

        Reply ↓
  8. Sparkles McFadden*

    On behalf of all sane people in the world, thank you for caring and thank you for trying so very hard to address this insanity. I am glad you are out of there and I wish you a happy and healthy future at a good workplace with kind people.

    Reply ↓
    2. MigraineMonth*

      Yes! Thank you for everything you’ve done. I’m so sorry you’ve had to deal with all of this.

      Reply ↓
      2. Ally McBeal*

        Well, she’ll have a job in the current administration but hopefully not any of the subsequent administrations…

        Reply ↓
    1. honeygrim*

      I don’t know what department the LW worked in, but a lot of academic departments are run by academics who have no management training, so the terrible management is unsurprising.

      What is surprising to me is that Kevina is a student worker and they still haven’t been able to dismiss her from the job. I don’t know if the supervisor is worried that Kevina might lodge a complaint for disability discrimination or if something else is at play, but, at the very least, it should be pretty easy to end a student worker’s employment when the semester is over.

      My previous job was at a university, and aside from the lack of training, a lot of the academics who ended up supervising were incredibly conflict-avoidant, so that’s basically the recipe for no management whatsoever. And it’s really difficult to get something started in order to deal with a situation like the one LW was in, because the conflict avoidance inertia is so strong.

      I’m glad you got out, LW! And I hope that the Kevina situation gets handled before anyone gets hurt.

      Reply ↓
    2. Debra*

      Academia does a lot of things wrong, but the fact that this specific thing wasn’t dealt with promptly is actually pretty surprising. Threatening violence on campus, especially by a student, is usually acted on quickly and definitively. Just hoping that might reassure someone who finds themself needing to make a report. No comment on the rest of the academic sphere…

      Reply ↓
    3. Salty Caramel*

      Sometimes it feels like I’ve said WTF more often in response to letters from academia vs corporate writers.

      Reply ↓
  11. Her My Own Knee*

    Make sure that if Kevina does end up on the news that you let them (the news stations) know that you tried to make people aware of the situation on multiple occasions. I would hate for that to happen, but I am sick to death of the useless handwringing and people saying if only they knew! This kind of inaction is not just stupid, it’s dangerous.

    Reply ↓
    2. Zippity Doodah*

      what would happen if OP called the news now, telling them what they’ve told us? now she doesn’t work there anymore and can’t be fired.

      Reply ↓
  12. Don't Send Your Kids to Hudson University*

    Letter Writer, Does your school have a threat assessment team? I work in a university setting and serve on that university’s team. In some states a threat assessment team is mandated by state law, some do it voluntarily as a best practice, and others may not have the function at all. If your institution does have a threat assessment team, they will want to know all of the information contained in your letters (it concerns me that neither the dean or students or campus police identified that as an option, as they would typically be part of a functional threat assessment team). Good Luck!

    Reply ↓
    1. Ellis Bell*

      This reminded me of the shooting in Bard College described by Gavin de Becker on the Gift of Fear. Entry level people being deeply afraid, but higher ups trying to squash or just doing the slowest, most ineffectual thing, while a completely predictable crime got underway. The father of a student killed that day, set up the Galen Gibson fund to prevent these things happening in the future, but that tragedy was so long ago. I’m staggered by OP’s assertion there is no safe way to even alert anyone of a threat, at such an advanced date, after so many tragedies have happened at similar organisations.

      Reply ↓
      1. Jules the 3rd*

        The key barrier is that Kevina is an employee with significant access to in-house information systems. Security systems are usually built around the concept of trusted people – when one of them goes, the system is screwed.

        Reply ↓
        1. Old Bag*

          Considering how many times these kind of tragedies have been perpetrated by faculty / staff, there still needs to be a way to report where staff being reported on can be guaranteed to not have access to this information.

          Reply ↓
  14. Kimmitt*

    LW, glad you’re safe. Keep your documentation for if and when you join the inevitable class action suit.

    Reply ↓
    1. HonorBox*

      That, and for when something else happens with Kevina and you can help document what reports were made and ignored.

      Reply ↓
  15. Juicebox Hero*

    Reading this, I realize I never want to hear the word “flesh” uttered by a coworker, ever.

    Reply ↓
    1. Slow Gin Lizz*

      Yes, and I also never want to hear the word “flesh” after “destroy.” That is a seriously horrific phrase.

      Reply ↓
  16. Properlike*

    I’ve witnessed a mentally ill student a use a professor of stalking when the student was stalking, and the college literally going in and deleting threatening emails the student sent to the professor from the mainframe (or wherever.) This was a state institution. But not completely surprising either.

    Reply ↓
  17. Ann O'Nemity*

    Student workers are often given grace, along with second and third chances, under the assumption that they are at university to learn. Additionally, many student worker supervisors receive little to no training in management, and some are only a few years out of college themselves. In fact, departments that employ the highest number of student workers—such as residence life, campus recreation, and food service—often have low-paid supervisors who are also relatively new to the workforce. However, this situation is so far beyond the pale that the inaction a blatant dereliction of duty and a clear violation of the law. An ombudsman could have provided oversight, but good grief, the Dean of Students should have known better.

    Reply ↓
    1. Box of Rain*

      under the assumption that they are at university to learn

      Me, screaming from my desk: “BUT NO ONE IS TEACHING HER!” :(

      Reply ↓
      1. Ann O'Nemity*

        Yeah, this.

        I don’t think it’s terrible if a university has more of a coaching model for student workers compared to other part-time jobs. One common example that comes to mind is not immediately firing no-shows the way some retail and food service jobs do. But that assumes the supervisor is actually coaching them on this stuff!

        And the examples from the LW are so egregious! Yikes.

        Reply ↓
    2. Four Lights*

      Good Gravy. You said you went to campus police — are they an actual police department or just the campus security? Because you could try the actual local police.

      You could also try finding someone else who works at the university — it can be a small community and if you find a person willing to go to batt for you who knows the people who know the people that could work.

      Reply ↓
  20. Ugh*

    Isn’t this how it always is. People complain, no one takes it seriously, then they show up with an AR and shoot up the whole office, or a school. Personally, if it’s possible, the LW should look for a new job and get away from this person. It’s not fair, but you have to look out for your own life.

    Reply ↓
  21. toolegittoresign*

    I am bookmarking this to share with the next person who says that “woke” campuses ruin the futures of people who “offend snowflakes.” They have no idea how frustratingly difficult it is to get any action taken against someone.

    Reply ↓
  22. LaminarFlow*

    This is absolutely ridiculous. I remember this letter, and I was honestly scared for LW & anyone else who interacted with Kevina. How many times do we hear/say something along the lines of “If we had only known that this person was planning a violent attack, we could have prevented it” in the wake of a mass shooting? Yet, two people raised concerns about Kevina’s alarming statements and behavior, and people in positions of authority took no action. SMH.

    Reply ↓
  23. 2 Cents*

    This is 20/20, but you could call the town/city police as well, since campus police are often toothless, to file a complaint. That’s the kind of public record colleges want to avoid.

    Reply ↓
    1. Fleur-de-Lis*

      THIS. I would not bother with campus any more, and I work in higher ed. In the part of campus where I worked at a previous institution – the library – we had someone taking upskirting and feet photos, going so far as to touch someone. I had tried every avenue with regular campus police and my dean, who were very non-responsive. The last student who encountered this individual called 911 and insisted on county sheriff, not campus police. The individual was arrested in the library and they actually bothered to ban him from campus that last time because there were county records, not internal only. I have so many stories from that place, and I have since moved on to an institution that takes campus safety far more seriously and responds to our calls.

      Reply ↓
  24. Zona the Great*

    Is there someone working for the school newspaper looking for story? Maybe that could help get the attention where it needs to be. Or is there some libel/slander thing I’m not thinking of?

    Reply ↓
  25. Samwise*

    Your dean, HR, and the campus police are all WRONG.

    They absolutely can act on the kind of threats Kevina was making. They do NOT have to wait until someone shows up with a gun.

    They DECIDED not to act. They’re culpable (morally speaking) and responsible (legally speaking) if Kevina does bring a gun or other weapon and then shows it or uses it.

    I had a student tell me, very cheerfully, about their gun collection and about their “feud” with their neighbor and about how they would “take it to the next level” with that neighbor and with anyone who treated them badly. Since I had to give this student bad news about their academics, I was understandably concerned. I softpedalled the academic news, the student left cheerfully, I called campus police, and the student was trespassed from the university.

    This is a large public university in a state with crappy gun laws. And even they responded appropriately even though the student never brought a weapon to campus (so far as we know).

    Reply ↓
  27. HonorBox*

    LW, thank you for the update. I’m glad you’re making it from outside of Kevina’s circle. While nothing seems to be moving at the university level, keep your notes about what reports were made, to whom, and on what date. Also keep note of your supervisor doing nothing when they told you they would take action. Hopefully it isn’t necessary, but it might be helpful should Kevina continue her behavior. Someone else might want to make a report and you may have some helpful information for them to include. Even more hopeful that Kevina doesn’t escalate, but if it does happen, you can provide some documentation to prove that reports were indeed made and ignored.

    And while it might not lead to anything, it would be worth a heads up to a couple levels of law enforcement off campus. This pattern is concerning, and things might be happening off campus, too.

    Reply ↓
  28. CubeFarmer*

    Oh, shocking! A large academic institution does nothing about a member of the institution making violent threats.

    I had a classmate who was just about as unhinged as Kevina. From what I gathered she a) knew how to work the PTSD/ADA accommodations system so that any time a behavior got called out, she blamed it on her PTSD, and b) the administration was taking the path of least resistance by giving her the degree no matter what it took.

    This woman had issues, no doubt, and had she actually undertaken an attack, there would not have been a single person surprised by that. The school was intimidated by the potential liability of making a false claim, and the logistics of seeing such a claim through to a conclusion.

    This woman graduated two years ago and seems to be bouncing around a bit (I have actively avoided her professionally.)

    Reply ↓
  29. The Other Evil HR Lady*

    Hot take: the Clery Act makes colleges/universities take these kinds of shenanigans less seriously because they don’t want this type of thing reported to the public. It’s as if you saw the bear squat in the woods, but you didn’t see the poop come out, so did the bear in fact exist at all?

    Source: my DH used to work as a police officer at a very well known university in DC, where a year can cost upwards of $70K (3 guesses which university it was). A crime happened on campus, but the perpetrator fled and was apprehended by DC police 2 streets away from campus. DH was told not to write the report, even though he fought tooth, nail, and union to get the report in. They suspended DH for insubordination… just in case anyone thought that paying more for education got you a safer campus – nope. The powers-that-be are just really good at pretending bears don’t exist.

    Reply ↓
    1. Old Bag*

      Oh I remember that. Not the part about the insubordination but the crime (if it’s the one I’m thinking of) the fleeing, the DC police apprehension.
      They really inadvertently Streisand-Effed-ed themselves on that one in the end I think.

      Reply ↓
    2. AnotherSarah*

      I’m not sure this is the case. First of all, Kevina might not have committed a crime, so Clery Act may not be relevant. But I can also say that at every university I’ve been at, admin overreported (above what the Act requires).

      Reply ↓
  30. Whoopsie*

    LW, if you’re interested in pursuing this further- and I don’t blame you if you just want to leave it behind now – it’s time to sidestep the campus authorities and go to city police. Maybe they’ll take your concerns seriously or maybe they won’t, but there will be a record of the concerns in a system that the university can’t access and can’t hide. And in my experience, universities hate when the public finds out just how crimes they try to sweep under the rug to protect their “reputation.”

    Reply ↓
  31. Orora*

    I’m glad OP is no longer in this situation, but for others who may be in a similar situation, check to see if your school has a Behavioral Intervention Team and contact them directly. If this person is frequently talking about shooting people and other violence, there is at least some suggestion that they may be a threat to themselves or others.

    https://www.wiu.edu/student_success/bittat/

    Reply ↓
  32. It's Thursday!*

    I work at a college…I wish I was surprised by this, but we’ve had faculty make similar reports about students (and these aren’t faculty who are over sensitive) with similar results

    Reply ↓
  33. Scott*

    Wow. Someone giving all these red flags that they’re going to shoot up their workplace and no one in a position to do anything about it seems particularly inclined to do anything about it. Not looking forward to the update on this when Kevina inevitably does end up on the news.

    Reply ↓
  34. Insert Pun Here*

    I work at a university. Here are some creative options (that, to be clear, you shouldn’t have to bother with. But.)
    As others have noted: hard copy letters. Better yet, hard copy letters to multiple university departments, and make sure the letter indicates who you’re CCing. It’s harder for office A to ignore you if they know that the same letter went to office B, with whom office A has had some long running and inscrutable academic feud.
    If you have access to counseling services, use them. Some of what you’ve described here may trigger your counselor’s mandatory reporting obligations (imminent threat of harm.) This will depend on your state.
    Campus newspaper, if they’re an independent publication.
    Is there someone in your office (or elsewhere) who is the kind of “been there a million years; knows everyone” employee that you often find at universities? If you trust that person’s judgment, ask them for advice. There may be a little-known or unpublicized procedure that you could exploit.
    Does your school have an anonymous hotline for ethics complaints? This may be the kind of thing that’s really only promoted/advertised to full time permanent staff. But like, you can call it too. These are usually managed by a third party, not your school.
    Good luck.

    Reply ↓
    1. anon for this advice*

      Damn it, Insert Pun Here, I almost coughed my soda at “It’s harder for office A to ignore you if they know that the same letter went to office B, with whom office A has had some long running and inscrutable academic feud.” Well-played!

      Anyway. LW, this is absolutely true. Say, if hard-copy complaints are sent to President’s Office, Office of Legal Counsel, Board of Trustees, *and* to whoever is heading up the Academic Senate (or faculty union if the institution has one), with every single office cc’ed on each others’ complaints? That will make a stir. All the other advice here is great too.

      Again, you are correct in worrying. You are correct in trying to warn people. It is unfair and wrong for you to bear the burden of trying to get the so-called adults in the room to forestall a tragedy that higher ed has collectively seen over and over and over. I am so sorry they are failing you.

      Reply ↓
      1. Insert Pun Here*

        Doesn’t matter what the feud is! Frankly, the people involved might not even remember why they’re feuding! You just gotta use the worst tendencies of the institution to your advantage.

        Reply ↓
    2. Holly Gibney*

      In my experience working in higher ed admin, hard copy letters are often ignored. They’re pretty easy to scrub evidence of, and when letters like that are sent to a ton of different offices, the gatekeepers at those offices will snicker at the alarmist language and write the sender off as a nut. It’s extremely unfortunate, but I’ve seen it happen in multiple offices. It’s still worth a try, of course, but it might not get you anywhere.
      University departments are INCREDIBLY afraid of being labeled alarmist/overreactors. If I were in this situation I would do a lot of what’s been recommended and possibly try to set meetings/calls with higher-ups in the school of education and/or psych-related departments. Frame it as, “the university doesn’t seem to be acting on this, and that seems off to me, as experts in your field can you please provide some guidance?” They might know some better channels to actually getting the complaint taken seriously.
      I’m sorry you have to deal with this, and between this and the “faculty wife” question yesterday, I’m so incredibly over the sh*tshow that is higher ed.

      Reply ↓
      1. Holly Gibney*

        Also, what does sometimes work in higher ed is being a broken record. If you’re a thorn in their side, they can’t ignore you forever, and everyone loves passing the buck in higher ed (can you tell I’m burnt out?) so eventually if you keep at it the buck will be passed to the right person. Obviously that’s a long game, though, and this needs action quicker. Ugh.

        Reply ↓
  35. Ellis Bell*

    I’m curious what they tell parents who question them on this topic. If I was spending that kind of money, and had access to news reports of how frequently this stuff happens, I’d want the low down on how they protect students. If I heard something about “it doesn’t happen here”, I would walk away or so “Okay, how would you respond to your first ever report of a threat?”

    Reply ↓
  36. anon for this*

    I have PTSD from experiences with multiple shootings/personal violence. I would not stop making noise until someone with authority heard and responded to information about a threatening coworker.
    Luckily, even though individual police officers at my workplace are dirty, the org in general takes threats seriously, and we do have a threat assessment team that has & does act appropriately.

    Reply ↓
  37. Gina Gold*

    OP, does your institution have an office -or at least a Director- of Student Employment? It/they may exist within Financial Aid, Student Financial Services, or Enrollment Management, depending on your school (or some other department – higher ed organizational structure is a hot hot mess).

    HR and campus police may be too removed from student workers to care about non-specific threats (side eyeing your campus police tho what the ffffffff!) but student employment may be worth reaching out to, especially if you were both employed via formal work study programs. Even if you no longer work in that office with this person, the patterns of behavior you’ve described are scary and you’d be doing your campus community a service in making sure that all relevant parties are aware.

    Reply ↓
  38. Cc*

    Slightly related but my freshman year of college I had a manic episode so severe that it turned into psychosis.

    I was never in danger of hurting anyone except myself but I was EXTREMELY paranoid and while I did mostly keep internal, there were definitely some outward signs that something was up and I was not fully in touch with reality. I was barely sleeping and I think that was pretty obvious to people.

    I also had an on-campus job and I so, so wish someone had intervened so I could’ve gotten help sooner before I became very self-destructive. I would’ve seriously resented them at the time but it would’ve saved me a world of trouble later on.

    A psychiatrist I had soon after said this can sometimes happen when a student goes from living at home to living at school or on their own. It’s a huge change and the brain doesn’t always adjust as it should, especially if there are other neurological things already at play, and sometimes things go a little haywire.

    (Btw, been medicated and completely fine since then, almost 15 years later. Thank god for neuropsychiatric meds!)

    Reply ↓
    1. Another Lab Rat*

      Ohhh, we’re going through this right now with a new member of our lab. They finished their PhD and moved countries to join our lab as a postdoc, and those huge changes (plus, you know, suddenly being distant from their usual support system) exacerbated their previously-more-or-less-well-managed bipolar disorder and resulted in a psychotic break. The break occurred in the lab and we had to call emergency services because they were posing an immediate danger to themselves and potentially those around them.

      Once they had stabilized in the psychiatric inpatient unit at the hospital a bit, they expressed gratitude to us for getting them the help they needed. Since they had only been in the country for a couple of weeks they hadn’t yet been set up with any medical coverage or anything, and being hospitalized, while traumatic at the time, connected them with the professional help they needed.

      Unfortunately they’ve since had to be readmitted to the psychiatric facility as their recovery continues :/

      Reply ↓
    2. Mrs. Pommeroy*

      Late teens, early twenties are prime age for exacerbation of existing or first time occurrance of hitherto unknown psychological problems – for example, schizophrenia. The change in lifestyle happening with starting college often makes it harder for everyone involved to notice and/or help.
      So, you’re definitely not alone in your experience, Cc, and it’s one of the reasons why low-threshold mental health services have become available on many more campuses over the years.

      Reply ↓
  39. Sarah*

    With that level of inaction, I’d probably put the university on blast. The parents of other students and the public deserve to know just how inept the administration is at taking action.

    Maybe the media.

    Or maybe just one carefully crafted missive to the University Parents Facebook group. They will jump on that like a dog on a bone. Anonymous, if you wish.

    My kids are both in college and those parent groups have so much drama. I usually just lurk them in shock.

    However, this might be one perfect circumstance to let that group go to town on administration.

    Reply ↓
  40. Admin 22*

    I think she should have been fired and kicked out of school. I have worked in the University setting for 20 years. It’s quite easy to get rid of a work study.

    But universities will lean towards the protection of a student’s rights vs. the effect on their employees. After all of the school shootings going on they should handle this with everyone’s safety in mind if she goes off her rocker. I was working at VT when a police office was shot & and the shooter killed himself. We went on lockdown and it was terrifying. I was not there for the larger shooting. Those events leave a huge mark on the people that were in school or working there.

    Her behavior should be taken as a warning sign that needs to be addressed before it escalates. By not addressing it they are risking a lawsuit if she snaps and hurts other people.

    Reply ↓
  41. JSC*

    I’m autistic and this stuff drives me nuts. This is just a jerk taking advantage of other people’s stereotypes about autism.

    We autistic people are perfectly capable of understanding and following social norms. We just don’t necessarily pick up on them when they’re subtle, unspoken, and/or arbitrary (which a lot of social norms are). Being told “you can’t talk about guns at work” or “you can’t pretend to use drugs in front of customers” or “here is a list of prohibited topics in the workplace” is actually super direct and explicit, so autism wouldn’t prevent someone from understanding that.

    I do wonder if this person’s supervisor actually was explicit or just something vague like “people have complained that you are being inappropriate.” But my gut is that this has nothing to do with autism. Most autistic people I’ve met, myself included, are sensitive and kind and feel ashamed when we find out we’ve done something that others think is weird or bad.

    Reply ↓
  42. This Fight is Just a Riot*

    LW I am so sorry you had to deal with feeling unsafe. I’ve been in that position before in a work situation and it is so much on your sense of safety and security. I’m glad you’re out of it. You did the best you could and you did the right thing.

    Reply ↓
  43. Ms. Eleanous*

    The Press.
    Go to the Press.
    Name names. Especially of Deans who punted.
    You can ask that your own identity remain confidential.
    I want to source a story …
    magic words.

    Reply ↓
  44. Retired Vulcan Raises 1 Grey Eyebrow*

    I feel sorry for any reading this who has been unsuccessfully job-hunting for months, as they must wonder why they are out of luck while this loon can get and keep a job.

    Reply ↓
  45. higheredadmin*

    This is nuts because it is usually pretty straightforward to terminate student workers. You just somehow run out of money for them and don’t renew them next year (even on unionized campuses they would be on annual contracts).

    Reply ↓
    1. mrs whosit*

      I thought that at first, too, but then I reread and thought it was a *classmate* complaining about her. Not her student. Maybe?

      Reply ↓
  47. Boba Feta*

    What. The ever-loving F. Did I just read?
    Context: I work at a university.
    (Insert emoji of insanely-wide shocked eyes here)

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  48. hazel herds cats*

    OP, should you ever find yourself in such a situation again, check if any of the law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction in your area have a Threat Management Unit (TMU) or similar. TMUs were created to handle stalking cases, and that’s still the majority of their work, but they have specialized expertise in assessing just how dangerous someone who is threatening violence is and therefore are generally the goto for potential workplace violence.

    I went directly to my county’s TMU in an analogous case concerning a student when I was faculty, bypassing campus police. The TMU decided that the student in question presented a significant risk and interceded, much to my institution’s horror and frustration (my institution was far more concerned about the student’s right to an education than my right to a safe workplace or, for that matter, the rights of other students to an education – kinda hard to learn with someone making threats in a classroom.)

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  49. Do You Hear The People Sing?*

    Good Lord.
    I’ve been in a school shooting. There were fewer red flags than Kevina is giving off.

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  50. Palmer*

    Honestly, this seems like a reason to gather multiple people to talk to a local newspaper “I’ve made several reports regarding vividly described gun violence fantasies and the school hasn’t investigated or even seems to care, I’m just really afraid that this person will escalate and I worry for other students”.

    Once a few reporters start asking the Dean/others about if the school is being negligent in dealing with a potential school shooter in the making. Suddenly they will care more about applying HR policies that you know a university has.

    Gotta make taking the path of least resistance actually doing something.

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  51. Witch of Oz*

    Wow. Call us when she shows up with a gun. Cause that’s always worked out so well in the past.
    Then, if the worst happens, there’ll be hand wringing and head shaking and “Oh why didn’t anyone do anything before?”

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