Aggravated Harassment?

[Judgeofwings]

My friend said that he was called in by college police because he told a teacher to fuck off via email.

If you send a professor an anonymous email basically telling them to fuck off, can someone actually charge you for aggravated harassment? The university police said to him that if he did not confess they would get his yahoo mail account traced with a subpoena to his IP address and the charges would be much worse. He did not sign a statement and left after he asked for a lawyer. Should he expect to be bothered again?

[Nephlite]

Suppose if the campus police want to press the issue they could possibly take it that far. Similar things happen around here in the District of Columbia with college campuses and as far as I know it mostly will lead to student judicial discipline action rather than criminal.

This doesn't seem like harassment to me because (although your story was rather vague...) 1. In order to charge someone with harassment, you have to establish a pattern of harassing behavior (multiple e-mails, text messages, stalking or malicious intent crimes like destruction of private property i.e. drawing messages on a cork board in permanent ink, etc.), 2. The complainant has to be put in reasonable fear of a persons intent to harass them or has reason to believe the person can harm them (similar to threats), and 3. It's a specific intent crime so the person has to harass a person with the specific intent to put the person in reasonable fear of (whatever the intent weather harm, harassment, etc.).

How did they track to him and how did he get made a suspect? Did he do it? Did he sent messages like this to the professor in the past? Is there more to the e-mail than just "Fuck off"? Does he currently have problems with said professor and has he tried a mediation counsel session with the professor? Many questions, I do have.

[Darkslitter]

post the original email

[Tajin]

Tracking someone in this day and age is piss easy; plus that guy doesn't sound very smart if sending anonymous emails to tell someone to "fuck off"

[hey]

Tracking someone in this day and age is piss easy; plus that guy doesn't sound very smart if sending anonymous emails to tell someone to "fuck off"

[Yugl]

On university internet?

[Judgeofwings]

He did do it but its his first time sending a professor an email like that. He basically told her she was a bitch and had a terrible attitude in her class. Yes, on university internet. They threatened him and said they will figure out that he sent it from that yahoo address by tracing his IP. (yes he did it from his dorm pc)

[Tajin]

He did do it but its his first time sending a professor an email like that. He basically told her she was a bitch and had a terrible attitude in her class. Yes, on university internet. They threatened him and said they will figure out that he sent it from that yahoo address by tracing his IP. (yes he did it from his dorm pc)

I'll go out on a limb here and say most people reading/posting this thread figured as much.

[Senji]

On the fast track for good grades. Liberal Arts?

[Celeste]

Why would your friend send a professor an e-mail detailing that she's a bitch and has a poor attitude? Why would your friend do it on university internet? WHY WOULD YOUR FRIEND DO IT FROM A YAHOO E-MAIL ACCOUNT? There are others way to strike out at people that infuriate you. There is never any need to be so direct as your friend was. :<

[Osede]

He did do it but its his first time sending a professor an email like that. He basically told her she was a bitch and had a terrible attitude in her class. Yes, on university internet. They threatened him and said they will figure out that he sent it from that yahoo address by tracing his IP. (yes he did it from his dorm pc)

Your friend is an idiot lol... he should just sent an email to department head first instead of doing this. Because I complaint to my department head before when we met a asshold professor long time ago, I think i do get a prompt reply

[Ksandra]

You friend sounds like a moron who probably failed a paper or some shit because he spent his weekend getting drunk/high and tried to write 15 pages in 2 hours at 3 a.m.


At least this is what I am going to picture in my head from lack of details.

[AoE]

Your friend's a dumbass. Lol

[Yugl]

Your friend is an idiot lol... he should just sent an email to department head first instead of doing this. Because I complaint to my department head before when we met a asshold professor long time ago, I think i do get a prompt reply

Depends on your university. My previous university had a policy of doing jackshit, which is part of the reason I left.

[aurik]

Never admit to anything. He'll be fine.

oblig:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

[Toxictaru]

I don't believe there is a legal issue here. Could they be expelled? Sure, but its realistically such a minor thing. Stern talking to imo. If a teacher has such thin skin that they can't handle being called a bitch and told to fuck off, they're in the wrong profession, and it doesn't matter at what education level.

[Tajin]

I'd expel him just on the basis of retardation

[Cleverness]

If he did it on the university internet they could trace it easy. Honestly if I ever had a professor I couldn't stand I'd just do my best to avoid an aneurysm from their incompetence and just be happy when the semester is over, or at least I would send my anonymous email through someones unsecure wireless connection at home if I wanted to be like the OPs friend. Rage smart, not hard.

[Tajin]

Home? nah brah, some random cyber coffee.

[scrockstar]

can someone actually charge you for aggravated harassment?

Charging him is the easy part, they don't really need much to actually charge him with aggravated harassment or w/e they want to charge him with.

The odds of him getting arrested or a court date being set is pretty slim. The Prof. could always take him to civil court for the sake of embarrassing him but that's about it.

The odds of him being expelled and having a hard time attending another state run school is pretty good tho.