She is now wondering if she took things too far by formally reporting him.
A 20-year-old female college student has turned to Reddit for their opinion on a rather controversial subject. In a viral Reddit post published on November 18th, which has collected 19,000 upvotes and almost 3,000 comments, the college student asks if she was in the wrong for going to her school's administration to report her harasser.
Since reporting the male student, many of her peers have criticized her by saying she took it too far and potentially harmed his career forever.
The context that led up to the assault.
The female student begins the post by explaining that her school's administration did punish the alleged harasser after she accused and reported him. She refers to the male classmate who harassed her as "R".
Their initial friendship started innocently enough with some casual talking. She states:
"He was all friendly at the beginning but started flirting recently. I never once flirted with him.. but last week he asked me out and I said no."
She goes on to explain that two days later, R texted her to ask her out once again.
"I told him that I already said no to which he replied [that] he gave me time to think [it] over and that I should be grateful for it."
Not taking "no" for an answer.
From there, the woman says that she got pissed off by his response and told him to "F off". He replied immediately, allegedly calling her "all the names under the moon", as well as "s*** shaming" her.
From there, the woman got very frustrated and called him out on her social media stories with the screenshots of their chats attached.
About 300 people saw the social media post, including a mentor of hers in fourth-year who worked for the administration at her school to place students in internships. This mentor found the screenshots to be "unacceptable and appalling", and the mentor then went on to report the harassing classmate to the head of his department.
The student goes on to say:
"Apparently in my college, this kind of behavior is labeled as harassment and punishment can lead to suspension. The department head and placement mentor called me to the head's office to get my statement... I showed them everything."
There are consequences to inappropriate actions.
The woman goes on to say that R was suspended for 3 months, and lost his spot in a very good internship that he lined up because of this incident.
But that's not where the misconduct here ends. A professor, who took R's side, told the young woman to formally forgive him for what he did, but she refused. She wanted him to be held responsible for his actions.
From there, R's own mother got directly involved and went out of her way to harass this young woman herself, claiming that she led on her son and sabotaged his career.
The young woman refused to withdraw her accusations, and stood by the punishment R was given by school administration.
Not everyone believes this female student was in the right for taking the screenshots to administration.
Several weeks later, and the internships have started up. The woman states that some of her friends said she took it too far, and others called her a bully for "ruining R's bright future".
The professor who took R's side even expressed to the student that he was "extremely disappointed in her", and said that "because of girls like her, potential careers of men are ruined".
"This actually made me cry and I'm rethinking whether what I did was actually extreme."
Despite her doubts, internet users were quick to come to the young woman's defense, despite what her friends and the professor were saying.
Users went on to say that harassment is a very serious offense, and R knew what he was doing. That his behavior was unacceptable and toxic, and if he had been let off the hook, he would have suffered no consequences or learned a single thing.
Others even expressed that R sounded like a classic abuser, and if he didn't get kicked out of school for harassing other students he would have gone on to harass even more of them.
Many especially expressed how outraged they were by the professor's stance and role in the situation. One user went on to say that the professor was "jeopardizing the safety and careers of women for undeserving men", and that maybe the young woman should "discuss it with the department head under confidentiality" and file a formal complaint when she graduates.
The woman offered a statement to Newsweek, saying,
"Harassers like R should get punished and called out. His career isn't worth it when he's going around abusing women for hurting his male ego and masculinity."
What do you think? Did this female student take the situation too far, or did R get exactly what he deserved?
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