Another day, another object lesson in the dangers of careless emailing. A law professor accidentally sent her students a link to a pornographic anal fetish video. Drexel University’s Lisa McElroy sent the attachment in an email with the line “I thought this article on brief writing would be interesting for all of you.” Unfortunately, what is interesting is that McElroy’s students know that when she’s not preparing lectures on obscure points of law, she’s watching videos with titles like “She Loves Her Anal Beads”. Drexel University issued a statement that the institution “is required to initiate fact-finding for all reports of inappropriate behaviors of a sexual nature that may impact members of our community.” McElroy may face suspension.
Interestingly, McElroy’s area of expertise – other than foreign objects, presumably – is legal writing, so if I was her, I would look upon this incident as a teachable moment. Surely any half-decent law student could argue that the definition of “inappropriate behaviors of a sexual nature” is hard yet flexible, and the degree of such behaviors’ impact depends on how far they have been inserted into the community. If anything, an argument that McElroy’s privacy was violated could easily be strung together. Couldn’t it, or am I just pulling ideas out of my ass?
