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Yesterday, a colleague from my school's history department brought me a student's final project from her history class. The assigned project was to produce a "creative" project dealing with a historical figure/event covered in the time period of the class (20th century United States). One student wrote a short play about the Great Depression. Another student designed a simple computer game that he ran on a Macintosh Classic II from the 1990s.

However, the student in question here (whose project I was shown) wrote a diary for a famous American serial killer. The diary graphically details the killings this man performed, including hand sketches of female genitalia, clippings from some porn magazines, and (as far as we can tell) splatters of real blood. It is a horrifically disturbing piece of work.

The student did technically fulfill the parameters of the assignment. He produced a (seemingly) historically accurate project on a historical figure from the 20th century in the United States. (Neither my colleague nor I really wanted to fact check every detail of a 200 page diary written in scrawled handwriting and splattered with blood and sketches of vivisected women). The writing is decent, albeit rather repetitive and somewhat simple. My colleague is likely going to give the student a fairly high grade on the project.

However, the graphic and disturbing subject matter, alongside the frighteningly realistic psychopathy, have brought my colleague to wonder if she should show the project to department or university administration. We were not sure if this student just had a distinct (and disturbing) gift for creative writing or if he was actually writing from personal experience (or something?). Is it a cry for help? Is the student a serial killer (unlikely)? Does he enjoy fantasizing about vicious crimes?

We are not psychologists, so we are not going to try to psychoanalyze this student from a professional standpoint. We also want to tread lightly around punishing and censoring a student for "thought crimes." However we also do not want to become part of history ourselves by being "that one professor" who saw potential signs of a violent criminal and opted to just give the kid an A- and be done with it.

Should my colleague show this project to university administrators?

Addendum

There have been a few questions about the structure and reasoning behind this class. This is a class that emphasizes history through the lens of "creativity." The thesis of the class is essentially that historical figures were highly creative and that we can learn a fair amount about history by examining "creativity." The class is usually taken by STEM majors as a general ed requirement. I took the class (years ago) and it actually was very interesting and I learned a lot about history.

There have been questions about the grading on the assignment. I do not know the specific metrics for grading the project. I said that my colleague may give an A- on the project as just a hypothetical filler grade. I do not know what she will grade the student on specifically. I guess it comes down to how creative we think writing the F-word 200+ times in a pornographic notebook splattered with a bloody substance is. Let's not act as if all violent porn is to be elevated to the pedestal of artistic acclaim just for the sake of radical liberality. I'm not the grader of the assignment and I ultimately cannot answer how it will be graded.

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Vladhagen
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    In my experience, the department under the Dean of Students often has staff that receives reports about students with mental health concerns. The staff in that office would know how to proceed, and what university procedures should be initiated. Your university probably also has some sort of threat assessment team that assesses potential threats to campus. The Dean of Students office (or similar) may turn over the documents to that team. – Christopher Dec 11 '18 at 19:50
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    Serious question: are you a fan of horror/slasher films? – Alex Reinking Dec 11 '18 at 20:05
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    I want to commend you for your stance in the second-to-last paragraph (not wanting to punish someone for "thought crimes", and admitting to not being psychologists). Far too many people think "oh, I read the WebMD synopsis of this mental health condition, I am now qualified to diagnose it!" It's good that you're aware of what you don't know, and are taking it into account. –  Dec 11 '18 at 20:13
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    "The assigned project was to produce a project dealing with a historical figure/event covered in the time period" Can you identify a specific historical figure or event from the diary? It may be less disturbing if he is recreating something that happened rather than making it all up himself. The tricky thing is to figure out if you have a Steven King or a serial killer. Don't forget to have a written trail of who you inform. – J. Chris Compton Dec 11 '18 at 22:46
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    @J.ChrisCompton There is a specific serial killer that this student wrote about about. He is a "historical" figure. – Vladhagen Dec 11 '18 at 23:16
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    @pmf Historically, disturbing imagery has been associated with nascent hostile intentions and been a valid cause for concern, potentially saving lives. Are you sure you don't want to associate with that ideology? – Lightness Races in Orbit Dec 12 '18 at 12:08
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    This sounds like the diary of the main character of "American Psycho", Patrick Bateman. Although I wouldn't use this as an argument to disregard your concerns, perhaps the student is making a reference to this? You can find a screenshot of a scene in the movie here, second to last image. Be warned the site contains screenshots of the movie, which is R rated. – Pedro Dec 12 '18 at 14:22
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    (I had a similar experience myself with a friend. We had to write a story for our Language class based on a book we read. He wrote a story where the main character was a very disturbed man, the story revolved around sexuality and suicide. The teacher was naturally concerned and called his attention, but my friend really had no ongoing issues at all, and was rather 'having some fun'.) – Pedro Dec 12 '18 at 14:39
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    I think this is normal, I did that before and read in detail and see a documentary about serial killers, but I think that doesn't mean that the student is mentally disturbed. If you are really concerned you can bring a psychoanalyst invisibly and discuss with the student, the psychoanalyst can judge whether the student really has the intention to be a serial killer or normal person. However, I do think that the student is a normal person and inspired by crime stories like anyone. –  Dec 12 '18 at 17:50
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    How do you know the blood is real? Did you test it? – MikeQ Dec 12 '18 at 17:54
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    A simple phenolphthalein based test suggests the possibility of the substance being blood. We have not tested it further than that. Nor do we plan to. – Vladhagen Dec 12 '18 at 18:08
  • This question depends on the institution, and I suspect will not generate high-quality answers. In my experience, universities have a formal policy, contact, office, etc., for suspected cases of student disturbance. If you're not cognizant of what that is at your institution, definitely ask your manager/chair for clarification. – Daniel R. Collins Dec 12 '18 at 18:42
  • I'd point out that the precise event - like when we get questions about harassment, abuse, etc. - isn't really under askance here. – Azor Ahai -him- Dec 12 '18 at 22:38
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    If nothing else, can you go to the police over being handed something covered in potentially real human blood? Seems like it might be illegal to get pathogens all over? – Azor Ahai -him- Dec 13 '18 at 00:12
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    That sounds like a helluva piece of interesting work. I wonder if it will be available in some form, maybe as a scan, to include the blood and all that. – Marco13 Dec 13 '18 at 01:05
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    What kind of history course is looking for creative projects with arts and crafts parts (computer programming, stage plays, fake books)? What kind of degree is this for? Is this a university? From a European perspective this assignment seems very weird - is this a usual thing in the US? – bukwyrm Dec 13 '18 at 10:47
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    I second @marco13. I like the idea and would like to read that work if there's any quality there. – Džuris Dec 13 '18 at 14:55
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    @bukwyrm This is a class that emphasizes history through the lens of "creativity." The thesis of the class is essentially that historical figures were highly creative and that we can learn a fair amount about history by examining "creativity." The class is usually taken by STEM majors as a general ed requirement. I took the class (years ago) and it actually was very interesting and I learned a lot about history. – Vladhagen Dec 13 '18 at 16:01
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    I third @Marco13, if there's any possibility to make the work available I'd really be interested in taking a look (with the author's permission, needless to say). – S. M. Dec 13 '18 at 16:33
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    "if she should show the project to department or university administration". I once came across some writings on a midterm quiz I was grading that suggested the student may be in need of psychiatric or other help. The word "administration" doesn't sound like those who are competent to help with that. But I immediately brought it to the attention of someone who was technically "administration", not because she was an administrator but because I knew she had broad and lengthy experience with the variety of non-routine things that happen. She said I should notify the...... – Michael Hardy Dec 13 '18 at 18:39
  • ....student's faculty advisor immediately, and she looked up his name. So I did. With a photocopy of what the student had written. The advisor thanked me and took it from there. I seem to recall the student dropped the course. – Michael Hardy Dec 13 '18 at 18:42
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit I wonder how much survivorship bias plays into that. Maybe bad people had violent thoughts when they were younger. But how many people had violent thoughts and then didn't turn out to be bad? Do you have any hard numbers, or are you just wildly speculating? –  Dec 13 '18 at 18:48
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    +1 For the edit. It's odd how many people are praising this assignment without seeing it or the rubric, assuming it's good just because it's edgy. The question isn't about the grade ... – Azor Ahai -him- Dec 13 '18 at 19:07
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    +1 for the edit, especially this sentence: "Let's not act as if all violent porn is to be elevated to the pedestal of artistic acclaim just for the sake of radical liberality." – J. Chris Compton Dec 13 '18 at 19:10
  • Your colleague is female, and the male student's "victims" were all female? If it's repeated, even in small ways, it might be taken to be harassment. Accepting that awkwardness can be misconstrued as creepiness, have there been previous unusual incidents of creepiness from this student? Victims of stalking are often periodically fed this type of "art". – Rich Dec 14 '18 at 00:27
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit There are lots of things associated with hostile intentions, including gender, race, income, religion, etc. Shall I also report financially disadvantaged students for possible domestic violence, because that demographic is statistically most likely to commit that crime? I mean, it could save lives, right? – Clay07g Dec 14 '18 at 05:07
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    @Clay07g Slippery slope arguments won't work ;) Obviously you don't just report anyone for anything. But there is a limit at which common sense kicks in. To go to the other extreme, if someone says they want to kill someone, you're going to say something, right? Or are you going to give them a pass because we don't want to dob people in based on statistical likelihoods of violence? – Lightness Races in Orbit Dec 14 '18 at 10:40
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit Actually, it probably depends on the context. Usually, when I hear "I'm going to kill [X]" it's pretty clearly a joke. Of course, there's nothing illegal about wanting to murder someone. If I sensed that someone was serious about it, I would recommend they seek help, and even go as far as to help them get help. Reporting them is quite useless, because 1. wanting to kill someone is not a crime, and 2. you can't force someone to get help against their will if they're an adult, unless they actually commit a crime. Reporting is for threats, such as school shootings. – Clay07g Dec 14 '18 at 15:28
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    @Clay07g Definitely agree that context is a relevant factor to consider. For what it's worth, I don't currently have a strong opinion on what the OP should do in this particular case. – Lightness Races in Orbit Dec 14 '18 at 15:31
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit per my colleagues in the psychiatry department, the thing to worry about is ACTUAL violence, rather than imagined violence. This is also what I was taught when working in a child psych research lab before medical school. Disturbing drawings = not worrisome; torturing animals = worrisome. – De Novo Dec 14 '18 at 17:31
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    @DeNovo I think that the issue is that by the time there's been actual violence it's too late. But attitudes regarding this vary hugely around the world as far as I can tell (which makes sense) – Lightness Races in Orbit Dec 14 '18 at 17:57
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit it depends on what you consider too late. The idea is that actual violence escalates. Hence, a child who tortures animals: intervene before they escalate their violence to another child or person. Too late for the tortured animal, not too late for the other child. Imagined violence (in a story, drawing, or other imagined fantasy) does not predictably escalate. – De Novo Dec 14 '18 at 18:07
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    "It is a horrifically disturbing piece of work." - In other words you asked the student to do something creative, and they did. Effectively. Don't quash their creativity by making them feel like a nutcase for being creative. – aroth Dec 15 '18 at 14:12
  • @J.ChrisCompton The edits seem more incongruous than praiseworthy. For instance, the original version describes "a 200 page diary", which the edit then recharacterizes quite negatively as merely containing "the F-word 200+ times". If both statements are true, then that means on average there's only about one obscene word per page. Which makes the latter (implicit) criticism that the work is uncreative because it makes excessive use of an obscene word seem more like the OP's personal opinion/bias than an objective interpretation. – aroth Dec 16 '18 at 00:12
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    @aroth "Incongruous"? In the original he says, "The writing is decent, albeit rather repetitive and somewhat simple." I haven't seen the work, but I think if I did my opinion would be that using the f-word more than two hundred times in a single assignment is repetitive - not creative. – J. Chris Compton Dec 17 '18 at 15:50
  • @aroth It is not just the use of obscenities that make the work repetitive. 70 or so entries that are verbatim copies of one another serve to do that. – Vladhagen Dec 17 '18 at 16:00
  • @J.ChrisCompton 'More than 200 times in a single assignment' is moot when the assignment was 200+ pages long. Counting words misses the point; unless the point being made is that even an actual serial killer wouldn't swear so much. Imo the criteria for judging the work are 1) does it accurately capture the acts of its subject, 2) did the subject keep a diary and was it consistent with the work, 3) did others from the timeframe keep similar diaries? History isn't always pretty; it's possible that realism demands some repetitive obscenity. I'd check that first before dismissing the effort. – aroth Dec 18 '18 at 00:03
  • @aroth You were criticizing the edit, and that is what I was responding to. Your comment regarding the "the criteria for judging the work" is off topic as the OP clearly stated (in the addendum you criticized) that he doesn't know how it will be judged. – J. Chris Compton Dec 18 '18 at 14:27
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    @Vladhagen Can you give an update on how this things were handled? – asquared Aug 09 '19 at 16:12

10 Answers10

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The "administration" is probably the wrong place to look. Instead, see if you your institution has some mental health staff, whether just associated contacts, or counselors, or even a dedicated behavior concerns advice function, to get proper advice. If the university is well-organized enough to have one of the latter, chances are they've also established policies requiring you to pursue this. And such an advice line would be well suited to tell you how to go about it. If your university doesn't, figure out where to report it.

Note that, unless your institution is highly dysfunctional, reporting concerning behavior and having a professional talk to the student in question shouldn't be considered a punishment, but a safety net.

As Buffy points out in a comment, the law may further require you to do some things, and avoid doing other things. While one would hope that the mental health support staff are well-informed, contacting the legal staff (University Counsel) may be useful. That said, as a non-lawyer person, I imagine most legal pitfalls concern naming the student when you shouldn't. Your initial inquiries need not include the name of the student, until you're convinced that you should.

Anyon
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    The "administration" is probably the wrong place to look. - That said, when in doubt about things like this, talking to your chair is often a good thing to do. I think my chair is considerably more knowledgable about various resources for faculty than I am. – Kimball Dec 11 '18 at 23:28
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    I'd add that Deans and Chairs can be approached to determine the proper mechanism, while still maintaining the anonymity of the student. – Scott Seidman Dec 12 '18 at 13:37
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    By alerting mental health staff the OP would be making some serious presuppositions. I don't think that the case is obviously a mental health thing (without seeing the actual diary). As a student, getting contacted by mental health services over an assignment would make me extremely uncomfortable in class. As a department head, I would not appreciate not being consulted before invoking such a dramatic step involving a student. – Spark Dec 12 '18 at 22:41
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    @Spark: I certainly agree that the OP should be very cautious about triggering any kind of action/intervention, and should consult their Dean/HoD before doing that. However, contacting mental health staff first doesn’t seem at all unreasonable: they, not the HoD, are the people most qualified to assess what level of concern (if any) the assignment really warrants. – PLL Dec 13 '18 at 12:19
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    The problem is that once you do that the department relinquishes some of its control over the process. This may or may not be a wise move, depending on what the content of the assignment actually is. Even a very disturbing work can mean nothing on its own, which is why it’s important to find out whether there are other signs before labeling the student as a psychological case. – Spark Dec 13 '18 at 14:56
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    It just goes to show that different institutions and departments are run very differently. I've had a former department head make it very clear that he was the wrong person to talk to for matters like these, and that he would not know what resources were available. As far as labeling goes, it's indeed unfortunate if reporting/discussing concerning behavior leads there automatically. That would not be the case at the institutions I'm familiar with, except if there's a immediate threat to the safety of others or of suicide. – Anyon Dec 13 '18 at 15:12
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    Speaking as a chair, PLEASE tell your chair about this even if they are not the primary fixer. Yes, student health/behavioral services is best suited and will likely be the ones to intervene, but having a chair in the dark about such things is a bad idea. – Randall Dec 14 '18 at 16:15
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Not to be dismissive of this, but to be honest he sounds like the average "edgy" teenager/young adult. Maybe he's a fan of horror/slasher movies/history or just interested in serial killers specifically. I'm very interested in this type of things myself, and I'm not violent in the slightest. I also did some questionable school projects when I was younger, not only because of my interest in these subjects but also partly for shock factor and to stand out from the other works (which seems to have happened here).

That being said, there's always a chance he could become a serial killer or show signs of violence, etc., but anyone in your class could without explicitly demonstrating it. If anything, show it to your superiors or talk to him about it just to clear your conscience, and if you notice any other worrying signs maybe suggest an appointment with a mental health specialist.

Grade wise, I do think he deserves a high grade if he did a good/accurate and detailed work, independent of opinion or personal taste on the matter.

Buzz
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S. M.
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    By far the best answer. There's no reason or need to do anything in this situation. Let the kid express himself. – user91988 Dec 13 '18 at 16:09
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    I'm not sure this sounds like an average "edgy" teenager/young adult. Are most young adults you know into fantasizing about women being murdered and raped? If so, might I suggest that you examine what type of young adults you hang out with? – DC 541 Dec 13 '18 at 19:27
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    I agree, I made a poster of 'meat is murder' with some pretty disgusting gore. We had to design a 'memorable poster', people still mention it 8 years later (teacher failed me though). Just checking won't do any harm, most likely he'll just have a good laugh out of it. – Nathan Dec 13 '18 at 19:37
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    @Nathan I'm not seeing the equivalency between a campaigning poster with an unambiguous message of "killing is bad" and the work described in the question. Would you care to expand on this? – David Richerby Dec 13 '18 at 21:48
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    I'm not sure that 200 pages of anything is "average" among students. Even the edgy ones. – David Richerby Dec 13 '18 at 21:49
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    I doubt the average "edgy" young adult - certainly the average edgy college student - would go to such lengths. If it had been an essay on a serial killer, then fine, I'd buy your argument. – einpoklum Dec 13 '18 at 23:06
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    @DC541 What about horror movies, slasher films, death metal, detailed serial killer documentaries etc.? These genres have popular appeal, perhaps not mainstream but certainly a significant following, that glorify such things. To me, working months on a gory movie, creating hundreds of prosthetic props of severed limbs, and writing characters that have a mind of serial killer is not altogether different from what the OP has described, just a different medium. It's hard to say without knowing more details but I don't see why it couldn't be either edgy or creative expression. – syntonicC Dec 14 '18 at 00:34
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    @DC541 "Fantasizing" is an incredible hyperbole. Obviously fantasizing about murder is atypical, but no one here has evidence that would suggest the student does so. If depicting a murderer is the same as fantasizing, then I suppose every horror book author, every movie director, writer, and perhaps every documentary creator is also into fantasizing about murder and rape. Someone better call up George RR. Martin to tell him how disturbed he is. – Clay07g Dec 14 '18 at 04:58
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    Even so, fantasizing about these things is not as uncommon as you might think, people usually just aren't very open about it, understandably so. Still think there's a long way from thinking about something, even writing 200 pages about it (which is admittedly a bit much), to actually doing something or having true intentions to do so. That being said, even the most normal-looking person in class could have a body in their trunk, and those would probably keep away from showing any "worrying" signs. – S. M. Dec 14 '18 at 09:14
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    @DavidRicherby Similarly to the student in question I handed in a project that shocked my teachers/peers for the sole reason of having a laugh. – Nathan Dec 14 '18 at 15:04
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    Totally agree. It would be different if that person was otherwise "acting weird", but as far as the project is concerned, I'd give it a definitive "A" for making something stunning and definitively-not-mainstream, definitively-not-expected which is nevertheless 100% within the requirements. Which is pretty much the definition of "creative". Those people who shoot 20 children in a school typically wander around mumbling "gonna kill everybody" for weeks and post about it online, and are still being ignored. A single "creative work" alone surely isn't alarming without other signs. – Damon Dec 18 '18 at 14:10
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[A student wrote] a diary for a famous American serial killer... graphically detail[ing] the killings this man performed, including hand sketches of female genetilia... [The student will likely receive] a fairly high grade on the project.

It seems like the student should be commended for their account of historic events.

It is a horrifically disturbing piece of work.

That seems like an excellent portrayal of a serial killer.

(as far as we can tell) splatters of real blood

You've acknowledged that it might not be real....

I'm left thinking: The student should be commended. That said, I don't have the full picture and you certainly "do not want to become part of history ourselves by being 'that one professor.'"

The OP has been commended (in comments, e.g., by Nic) for acknowledging that they feel somewhat out of their depth. So, this seemingly isn't an issue that the OP should deal with alone: I recommend delegating responsibility to your department head. This isn't shirking; it is the right thing to do. (At least in my opinion.)

There are also ramifications to consider: As commented below, "[I]f it all blows up, you can point fingers. If you don't, and it all blows up, fingers will be pointed at you."

user2768
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    Dumping the whole thing on a more senior member of staff sounds like a wonderful idea. That way, if it all blows up, you can point fingers. If you don't, and it all blows up, fingers will be pointed at you. – Valorum Dec 12 '18 at 16:44
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    If I was the student and this project was entirely a creative exercise, I would consider being offered psych council for the disturbing content of the journal to be the highest form of praise. – Abion47 Dec 12 '18 at 22:24
  • -1 for the suggestion to "pass the buck". – einpoklum Dec 13 '18 at 23:07
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    @einpoklum Why? (It's surely outside the scope of the OP's responsibilities, not to mention their pay grade.) – user2768 Dec 14 '18 at 08:23
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    It's within OP's (colleague's) responsibilities as a teacher and as a human being. – einpoklum Dec 14 '18 at 09:21
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    @einpoklum I disagree. The OP has been commended (in comments) for acknowledging that they feel somewhat out of their depth. (At least, that's my interpretation.) Hence, I believe the OP's responsibility is to delegate, not to solve it themselves. That said, my above phrasing is a little cold and partially focuses on the wrong aspect -- I'll edit. – user2768 Dec 14 '18 at 09:39
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    @einpoklum If you lack the necessary expertise (especially, as in this case, in health-related matter), passing the buck is the only responsible thing to do. – Konrad Rudolph Dec 14 '18 at 10:17
  • @KonradRudolph: 1. OP's colleague has experience others don't: The experience of teaching the student and going through his submission. 2. Passing the buck is not the same as ensuring the student is receives attention from a well-intentioned trained oerion. – einpoklum Dec 14 '18 at 10:30
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    @einpoklum "passing the buck" is compatible with "ensuring the student...receives attention" and it doesn't exclude the OP from providing valuable input, it merely passes responsibility. In this instance, to someone more able to help. – user2768 Dec 14 '18 at 10:36
  • @user2768: "Ensuring" means keeping responsibility. – einpoklum Dec 14 '18 at 10:37
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    @einpoklum I don't understand your reasoning. Surely, to ensure student health one must delegate responsibility to a professional, rather than keeping responsibility and attempting to handle the situation one's self. Perhaps you mean that one can only ensure student health by remaining involved? I don't dispute that, but delegation is still necessary. – user2768 Dec 14 '18 at 11:25
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    @KonradRudolph That assumes that you have someone responsible to pass the buck to. It's perfectly possible to not feel you have the personal skills needed to handle a situation, but also have good reason to think that passing it on to the supposedly proper authorities would be a disastrous idea. If I were in the US and found some black teenage males scaring innocent people in the street with a fake gun for fun, I don't think I'd be great at diplomatically handling that situation, but I certainly wouldn't call US cops on them. Better to try your best than risk an institutional overreaction. – Mark Amery Dec 14 '18 at 19:35
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    @KonradRudolph And in this specific case, we're talking about the US education system, which is fond of "zero tolerance" policies and nonsense like expelling kindergarten students for biting a sandwich into the shape of a gun. It'll depend somewhat upon the individual staff at his institution, but the OP here may have very good reason to assume that escalating to anyone whose official job it is to deal with a situation like this will automatically have life-damaging consequences for the student involved. I feel this gets wrongly glossed over by almost everyone answering or commenting here. – Mark Amery Dec 14 '18 at 19:38
  • @MarkAmery Universities are surely require to "have someone responsible to pass the buck to"? I suspect not doing so would open the university to litigation, especially in the US. More practically, there must surely be someone in the university that can take responsibility, even if they aren't in the chain of responsibility. – user2768 Dec 17 '18 at 07:38
  • @user2768 I fear you're missing my point. Yes, there is almost certainly someone whose official role is to take care of cases like this. In a perfect world, that person would do so thoughtfully, "responsibly", and with respect for the rights of the student. In reality, it seems more likely to me that reporting to them is the single most irresponsible thing a teacher can do, and will automatically result in the student's suspension or coercion into therapy, without regard for their welfare or whether such punishment will serve any purpose, just so that the school can say it did something. – Mark Amery Dec 17 '18 at 10:43
  • @MarkAmery I understand your point. I'm just struggling (perhaps optimistically) to believe that there exist many universities in which there is no such person -- not necessarily the person who is officially responsible -- to delegate to. Is that true for many of the institutes you've worked for? I'm struggling to think of a single institute, that I'm aware of, where no such person exists. – user2768 Dec 17 '18 at 11:02
  • @user2768 "Is that true for many of the institutes you've worked for?" - I haven't worked for any. I'm not an academic - just a Stack Overflow user who got here through the Hot Network Questions. – Mark Amery Dec 17 '18 at 11:17
  • @MarkAmery Do you have any experience on which to base your comments? Or are you speculating? – user2768 Dec 17 '18 at 13:15
  • @user2768 No personal experience whatsoever, but one doesn't have to look very hard to find media stories about serious (and defacto punitive) measures being taken against students for revealing mental health issues - even in cases far more morally unambiguous than this one where the student has harmed nobody and presents no plausible threat to anyone but themselves. Here's an article: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/college-mental-health-services_n_5900632. It's not speculation when it's a documented practice that colleges openly admit to engaging in. – Mark Amery Dec 17 '18 at 13:36
  • @MarkAmery Sure, there exist cases. But, again, I don't believe malpractice is widespread. – user2768 Dec 17 '18 at 14:02
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Should my colleague show this project to university administrators?

Yes. It's lunacy for the instructor to try to handle this alone as a purely academic issue. The student should know a priori that submitting what sounds like hundreds of pictures of mutilated women and what appears to be real blood is out-of-bounds for a college class. The fact that this is not the case suggests very deep problems.

At any institution I've experienced, there is some well-defined path for reporting and getting students appropriate help. For example, at my college we have an Assessment and Care Team (ACT) whose mission statement includes "Initiating appropriate intervention without resorting to punitive measures", etc. Reportable behaviors include "Material, written or spoken, in coursework suggesting possibly self-harm or harm to others", etc. Among the members of this team are the Dean of Students, Public Safety, Counseling and Health Services, etc.

The fact that you and your colleague don't know what the recognized process is at your institution indicates that you're pretty far out of your depth. Ask your manager/chair immediately what the correct contact is. I'll close with one more quote from our college's ACT document for faculty, which I think is top-notch advice:

Know your limits: Only go as far as your expertise, training, and resources allow and trust your feelings when you think an individual's problem is more than you can handle. If you are unsure how to respond to a specific student, consult with Counseling Services or a member of ACT.

Daniel R. Collins
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Yesterday, a colleague from my school's history department brought me a student's final project from her history class. The assigned project was to produce a "creative" project dealing with a historical figure/event covered in the time period of the class (20th century United States).

What a strange university level type of history assignment ! Why would you want a student of history to get creative ?

(Neither my colleague nor I really wanted to fact check every detail of a 200 page diary written in scrawled handwriting and splattered with blood and sketches of vivisected women)

200 pages with drawings ? That seems overzealous, way too much work for an assignment, doesnt it ?

Although it's not your job to put a diagnostic on the student, it is possible that you dont find in the institution anyone whose job it is. In that case, you still gotta do something as a citizen.

The teacher can interview the student about the essay under the guise of finding it interesting and unusual, but with the real intent of probing the student. A paranoid/guilty student wouldnt submit such paper. I suggest the interview focuses on discerning the fantasy part in it and possibly concludes with a counselling offer if suitable.

The interviewer should ask questions as an amazed reader wanting to know more about the genesis of the work, this is well within the scope of teacher student interaction

-is this real blood? Is it yours ?

-did you write the thing on a word processor before handwriting it ?

-what sources did you use ? Did you get creative ? Where ?

-how did the idea come to you ?

-how much time did you spend on it etc....

Now if the student says it's his blood (shows you the cuts), wrote all by hand without word processor, intertwined a lot of fantasy with few historical detail, and has always been fascinated with such things then it is certainly worthy of spending extra effort finding shrink help for the student.

Manu de Hanoi
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    "200 pages with drawings ? That seems overzealous, way too much work for an assignment, doesnt it ?" taking into account that another student made a computer game running on an ancient machine, I suspect that the assignment asked to spend at least gazillion hours on this project... – Džuris Dec 13 '18 at 14:58
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    u are right, regardless, I cant tell in which cursus all these assignments are supposed to fit together. – Manu de Hanoi Dec 14 '18 at 05:09
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TL;DR - if you're worried, contact the department head and recommend that they keep an eye out for further signs.

Let's start with the obvious: if you think that there is a clear and immediate threat to you, the student, or anyone else - contact the authorities.

I don't think that this is the case here though. The most reasonable explanation in my opinion is that this is a student who wants to be edgy/different, and has a thing for horror. Some of the things you point out do not sound too outlandish to me (at the risk of sounding crass, you can get a pretty good idea of what genitalia look like after 5 minutes on the web), but you are a better judge of that.

If you feel like this is unusually weird, and it raises red flags in your opinion, I would the department head. Your reaction needs to be measured when you present the case. The student committed no crime and took an unusual approach to an assignment. If you start a whole thing involving psychological services etc., it may turn out to be nothing, and may be construed as 'thought police-ey' (your department head may -rightly- think that you're overreacting). Just state that the work made you uncomfortable, and that its content may be indicative of some underlying issues. There is no ethical issue with showing students' work to colleagues (including department heads). Your department head will be in a better position to make a call - they'll be able to find out whether the student has been showing other disturbing signs in other classes, or on campus.

Spark
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There are several good answers here already, but I would still like to add a humble option: talk to him, without assuming he is disturbed.

"This is a dark topic, and you have obviously spent a lot of time with it. How do you feel, now you're done?"

If you think the work might be a "cry for help", such a discussion will probably help you assess whether there is any cause to worry.

Bex
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Talk with the author about his motive to write such a piece and whether he used real blood. If yes, ask why he used real blood. After this you can decide how to proceed. I mean, is it really necessary in such a forum to suggest to ask the most basic questions?

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You should do nothing, for the following reasons:

(a) The student did an excellent project and should be rewarded for that.

(b) Morality is attached to actions, not character. The act of killing someone is contrary to ethics, but character traits that allow one to not be grossed out by the idea of killing someone is not contrary to ethics.

(c) People are horrified by different things. For myself, I am very squeamish and discomforted by apparently "moderate" depictions of misuse of power. Yet to most people, these depictions are just harmless entertainment. See point (b).

(d) If the existence and availability of certain cultural materials is psychologically harmful, the responsibility falls on society to legislate appropriately. The responsibility does not fall on nonexperts to act on their highly fallible guesses about the empirical facts pertaining to the psychological effects of cultural materials.

goblin GONE
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First thing's first: Handle potential immediate danger

Your colleague should contact the student - most preferable in person if she knows she will see him / pass him by somewhere; if not that, by phone; otherwise by email, but also possibly through known friends of his.

When first contacting, your colleague should not be overly alarmist - so as not to make him break contact. She should commend him for his effort; casually sneak in a question about whether he is on campus, taking his exams, or whatever it is he's supposed to be doing; and asking him to come in for a talk about the work, to explain some aspects of it (e.g. during reception hours).

If the student cannot be contacted, is incoherent, or suggests that he is in distress - then it's emergency mode. I'm not good at giving advice about interacting with people when they're potentially-suicidal or potentially-homicidal; I'd say Google it or maybe other answers here on the site are relevant.

I'm just saying - don't have your colleague mull this over, wondering what exactly to do, in case the guy is in danger of harming himself or others in the immediate future

einpoklum
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