Coping with Seven Disruptive Personality Types in the Classroom

uses in order to frighten and mislead college personnel, as Mr. Cho at Virginia Tech didwhen he verbalized threats of suicide at the point when he most feared that he would bedisciplined for stalking.Another concern that sometimes arises with antisocial student behavior is an unwillingnessto follow rules or accept the Code of Student Conduct. Fortunately, there are legal precedentsto support our ability to invoke the Code of Student Conduct successfully.The Code of Student Conduct at a college is fairly unassailable. It has been hammered out inthe courts. Students have challenged these codes over the years, and the codes have evolvedout of an extensive legal history. Because the matter has already been adjudicated, it issound—much like traffic regulations. A person could challenge those laws again, but nobodyis going to sanely argue that we should not have traffic regulations. There have to be laws. Sothat part is not up for debate.If a student, for example, decides to challenge the essential centerpiece of the regulations atthe college, which is the Code of Student Conduct, and asserts that it is not legitimate and hedoes not have to conform to it, it is not necessary to take the student very seriously. This is abit of an exaggeration, but it is a little like saying, “I do not agree with the law that says thatmurder is a crime. I think I might just try it out.” It is a form of insanity to think that way,which would certainly fall under the rubric of sociopathy. You might be willing to have abrief discussion about it for the sake of educating the student, but it certainly is not open todebate.Some sociopaths might very well abate that argument by saying, “Look, the rules andregulations of this college do not apply to me. I have my own set.” The response to this isfairly simple and straightforward: “Well, you can have your own set, but you can’t have ithere.” That is what such students need to be told.Tell the offending student, “If you do not want to abide by this and do not want to comply,you can keep your belief, but you just can’t be here. If you decide that you’re going to act insuch a way as to flout that particular requirement, you just can’t do that here, and here arethe reasons why. . .” It is not necessary to spend a long period of time trying to arguesomebody out of something like that, because it is too bizarre of an assertion in the firstplace. The response should be simple, straightforward, and direct.14