Professor Goes Nuts In Class - Scrawls "9/11 NOW" On Blackboard

[matcom]

<snip>

LAFAYETTE -- A physics professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette made threatening comments related to 9-11 Wednesday that led officials to evacuate a building and call in bomb-sniffing dogs.
Student Kacie Spears said Assistant Professor Louis Houston lost control right after class began and was yelling obscenities.

"Then he told us if we got out of our seats he's gonna kill us. He went on the black board and wrote "911 now," so we were really in fear for our lives," Spears told a local television station.

Spears said Houston slapped a student and told his class he was God.

A student in Houston's class in Broussard Hall later walked to ULL Police to report what Houston had said during class, ULL spokeswoman Julie Dronet said.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/101404/new_ull001.shtml

[gratuitous]

1. So, you're a professor in Louisiana now, Matcom?

Got tenure, or can they fire you for this?

[Champ]

You should do a search

:D

[Catfight]

2. Repugs are unwinding...remember how the right wing had people

bombing abortion clinics and killing anyone inside? YUP....remind me how they differ from the Taliban and Osma again? Line getting blurry...very very blurry.

[yardwork]

15. I don't think this is connected to politics - the guy sounds nuts

[ProfessorGAC]

3. I Know What Everybody's Thinking!

It wasn't me! Honest!

I'm crazy, yes. But, i'm not from Louisiana.
The Professor

[GingerSnaps]

4. Jesus F-ing Christ

That's worse then my class that I had last night and I didn't want to mention it on DU.

:scared:

[benito]

5. I live in Lafayette

http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=2426640&nav=EyAzRxsA

::shaking head::

Some students tell KATC this isn't the first time Dr. Houston has snapped at his students.

"He's always acted a little strange, he's yelled and cursed before, and this time we waited for it to stop, but it never did," Spears says.
Students say right after class started at 9:00, Houston lost control. "He slammed the door and started yelling "f-you" and different profanitites at us. Then he told us if we got out of our seats he's gonna kill us. He went on the black board and wrote "911 now", so we were really in fear for our lives," Spears told KATC's Tim Reid.

[Arkana]

12. He had a Frinkian moment, apparently....

"Ga-HOY-ven MAY-ven!"

[hlthe2b]

6. Reminds me of why I took Physics as a "self-paced individual study"

class. The first week on campus, I noted a startled crowd outside the physics building and emergency vehicles soon arrived--only to find later that the "star physics student who had just won a presigious fellowship (Rhodes Scholar, I think) had "lost" it, and set himself on fire in front of the building. My impression was that the entire department was as strange as that, so I got my year's credits the hard way, but without having to attend any of their classes. (No offense intended to any physicists out there-- just my observation at the time)

[skip fox]

7. Well, I happen to be a professor, not only in LA but at UL Lafayette, and

saw the commotion yesterday: dozens of cop cars, Haz-Mat, fire-engines. They had the guard our with dogs in out parking lot (on the other side of campus), sice the rumor was that he claimed to have bombs on campus.

Basically a sad story of a nervous breakdown in public. Mental illness is, as we know, nothing courted or chosen, but an ILLNESS.

Nice to see other Lafayette DUers out there. Hi Benito.

Any more?

[amazona]

8. wow I hope he can recover from this

Without getting too specific I'll just say that years ago I knew a man who was studying physics who developed schizophrenia, fortunately, it was the kind that could be controlled with medication. It took a long time for us to catch on that he had an actual problem, as the physics department was sort of a club for unusual and not too socially well adjusted individuals. Not always easy to tell in that environment what is just the usual nerd/high-functioning autistic thing and what is a real mental problem in need of medical attention.

Have to admit when I saw the headline today, I was a bit worried for a moment that the professor would be my old friend from back in the day.

I hope the professor can get the care he needs and can get back to teaching soon.

[skip fox]

9. Yeah. I wasn't trying to squelch humor, but I worked in mental hospitals

for seven years as a young man and personally witness how mental illness wastes lives.

But I was even joking with students about it in my 2 o'clock lit class. Funny from one angle, sad from another.

[Love Bug]

10. Jeebus!

I hope they realize the guy is mentally ill and not a terrorist. For one he'll get treatment and for the other he'll get Gitmo.

[frylock]

11. SERENITY NOW!!!

insanity later.

[Endangered Specie]

13. Everyone knows that all Physics professors are slighty nuts...

This one is one of those at the far end of the bell curve ;)

[BlueJazz]

14. I've got a degree in Physics so I guess from ...

your post, I'm a little bit nuts?.
Is that how it goes?...You make these broad statements and they apply to everyone in the profession.
Gee...it must be wonderful to have the superior brain waves to be able to tell if half the world is nuts.
Well...let me tell you something, smarty-Pants...I'm pulling your chain! (actually I do have a Physics degree so maybe I just proved my point!) ...Hugs!

[Endangered Specie]

18. Well, in the bell curve I mentioned...

there are the few on the 'non nuts' extreme of the spectrum ;)... Plus, Im going for a physics minor so... Im minorly nuts?

[flamingyouth]

16. They took him the coroner's office for an evaluation, according...

to the latest story on Yahoo! news.

What kind of "evaluation?" An autopsy? :scared:

[SOteric]

17. Jeebus Freakin' H. Cripes on a Ritz Cracker!

What is with people these days?!

Threatening the students with harm and proclaiming oneself god?!!

Any professor worth their salt knows you've got to pace yourself. You don't pull that shite until spring quarter.