Coping with Seven Disruptive Personality Types in the Classroom

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The instructor should instead immediately dismiss the class and enlist help from the campussecurity office. Many college classrooms come equipped with a telephone for calling forassistance when needed. The instructor should use it. The responding security officers couldthen have the student transferred to the psychological service, taken to an off-campuspsychiatric facility for observation and evaluation, or taken into custody by a lawenforcement agency in the community. This is clearly the safest way to proceed in thissituation.After the student who has leveled a lethal threat has been taken into custody, the instructorshould proceed to document the incident and then forward the documentation to adesignated dean or judicial affairs office for further investigation and evaluation.Of course, that is a worst-case scenario. Many explosive situations are less severe than ablatant, imminent physical threat. Sometimes, a student may simply lose control, beginyelling, or jump up from his or her seat in a very disruptive way. In this situation, instructorsmust respond calmly and firmly.• Ask student to quiet down, return to seat, or leave• If student persists, dismiss class and contact securityWhen explosive students lose control in the classroom, instructors, of course, have theoption to ask the student to quiet down, return to his seat, or leave. However, if the studentpersists in such explosive behavior, it probably behooves the instructor to dismiss the classand then contact the security office to report the offending student.Generally, it is not advisable to enlist the help of classmates to physically control theout-of-control student, unless it is likely that the student is about to seriously harm someoneelse if he is not immediately, forcibly restrained.Also, be aware that other students should not be sent as couriers to report such incidents,since the offending student may target them later for retaliation. Dismissing the class andreporting the incident should suffice in most instances.It may be surprising to learn that some explosive students have disruptive episodes that areshort-lived and not at all dangerous. Some of these students suffer from organic orneurological disorders. It is possible that in some cases, such as those in which the explosiveepisode is merely distracting but not especially frightening or dangerous to others, thebehavior can be tolerated—at least for the time being. This may be the case when a studenthas a condition such as Tourette’s syndrome.8
However, in situations in which the explosive episodes are too frequent, too disruptive, ortoo dangerous, it is usually necessary for instructors to document and report these incidentsto designated administrators while requesting their intervention. Students should be givenprior warning to control their outbursts, of course, as required by due processconsiderations.• Document incident and send to designated dean or judicial affairs office• Prior warning required by due processHere is one final comment about the explosive student. Many explosive students disregardand violate academic and social boundaries when they lose self-control by, for example,shouting, leveling epithets at others, or displaying physically aggressive behavior. They maythen defend their actions by arguing that they have the constitutional right to expressthemselves in any manner they please—the right of free speech.Instructors should know that within the milieu of the college classroom there are severalessential dimensions that may legitimately and legally be applied in abridging andcontrolling speech.• Exceptions to free speech- Decibel level- Obscene or abusive language- Relevancy to topic- Time: no long, effusive monologuesOne such dimension relates to decibel level. Ordinarily, students simply are not permitted toshout, scream, or yell while in class and should be admonished or warned for doing so.A second dimension relates to obscene or abusive language. Unless the use of obscenelanguage is appropriate, such as in the case of a quote from a book or the enactment of astage play, such language should be curtailed by admonitions or warnings and, if necessary,documented in reports to a designated administrator.A third dimension relates to the matter of relevancy. If, as often happens, a student veersfrom a class discussion on a designated topic in order to discuss his or her personal lifeexperience, which in no respect happens to be germane to the topic under discussion, thatstudent may legitimately be blocked from doing so, with reminders or admonitions to ceasethe autobiographical oration, on the grounds that it is simply not relevant.9
Page 1 and 2: Coping withSeven DisruptivePersonal
Page 3 and 4: About This White PaperThis Magna Pu
Page 5 and 6: IntroductionThe typical college pro
Page 7: kThe Explosive StudentCharacteristi
Page 11 and 12: lThe Antisocial StudentCharacterist
Page 13 and 14: when detected and verified, have ad
Page 15 and 16: mThe Passive-Aggressive StudentChar
Page 17 and 18: • Keep records; mention in syllab
Page 19 and 20: play equally escapist video games.
Page 21 and 22: The issue here is that a great many
Page 23 and 24: nThe Narcissistic StudentCharacteri
Page 25 and 26: A short, straightforward comment to
Page 27 and 28: Without much ado, the consultant to
Page 29 and 30: pThe Litigious StudentCharacteristi
Page 31 and 32: qThe Compulsive StudentCharacterist
Page 33 and 34: imaginative tales nonetheless.It se
Page 35 and 36: Appendix A: Additional Issues and C
Page 37 and 38: of it. That could result in you bei
Page 39 and 40: had seen him as a potential menace
Page 41 and 42: to say, “Well, we agree to disagr
Page 43 and 44: As we know, some college football p
Page 45 and 46: Imitation of murderers is another r
Page 47 and 48: #3: Passive-AggressiveStyleCharacte
Page 49: We Value Your FeedbackWe hope you

Coping with Seven Disruptive Personality Types in the Classroom

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