I am fuming right now, absolutely steamed. I am insulted that, after going through thirteen years of schooling, I am still periodically spoken to by elders with little more respect than a well-trained collie dog.

Today, as I was making my way from Environmental Science to Voice, I found myself in a situation comparable to the way some mothers might scold their young children. As I will be going out of town this weekend, my boyfriend and I took a little longer saying goodbye to each other before class. Granted that we were standing in close proximity and for some amount of time I had my arm around his waist, we were at no point displaying any inappropriate physical contact. As I kissed him goodbye, a brief peck, we were accosted by a fuming middle-aged matron who teaches English and whose classroom we were standing outside of. According to this teacher we were significantly disrupting the "children" inside her classroom.

My initial reaction was shock. It was still passing period and I wonder what she was hoping the children, as she referred to the few high school students who were mulling around her classroom, would be focusing on. Moreover, on what grounds could she have found what we were doing inappropriate? I wonder if she was just having a bad day and thought she might take out her frustration on innocent bystanders.

Regardless of her reasons, and how unsubstantiated they might seem to me, the way in which she rudely imposed her opinion, ranting "Have you no pride, woman?" was far beyond a professional student-teacher relationship. As I think over the incident, I become far more offended by the way in which she spoke to me than the complaint itself.

Of course, in a diverse community like Paly, we will all hold different ideas of what is socially acceptable. I certainly was not trying to offend anyone with the way I interacted with my boyfriend and, in consideration of those around me, generally shy from publicly showing what I consider to be too much physical affection. In the same vein, rarely do I confront others if I become uncomfortable with what they are doing around me. It would be absurd for me to run around campus prying couples apart.

It is unfortunate that this teacher thought it would be acceptable to publicly berate students. Her words, had they come in a more considerate or thoughtful tone, might have affected my future actions had she truly been offended by the way in which I interacted with my boyfriend. Unfortunately, her obviously uncontrollable temper has only caused me to feel mildly insulted and needless to say will have no impact on my future behavior, aside from a strong aversion to that area of the English building. Any respect I had previously held for this woman has now been completely destroyed due to the extremely unprofessional way in which she handled her complaint.