'Kate never did show up': College professor faces off with absentee student who insists she's showing up to class

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Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
May 29, 2023 3:00 PM EDT

We've all had that dream where we're wandering around school, trying to find a classroom. In the dream, maybe you're in your old middle school or your college campus, carrying your backpack. As you wander the halls, they all look the same and they stretch for miles. Maybe you enter a room, but it's not the right one! In this nightmare scenario, you're late for a test and cannot possibly find it. Then, you wake up in a cold sweat, thankful to know it's just a dream. 

Well, not this person! I guess "Kate" has never had that type of stress dream, otherwise she'd never have skipped out on this class. A college professor, u/Terrible-Antelope680, shared their story to r/pettyrevenge. As they write, the "student got what they earned." That's because the student, Kate, straight up didn't attend class — not on the first day or any day after that. But she kept insisting she really was in the prof's class…

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  • 01
    Gesture - 'Student goes to wrong class all semester'
    via Element5 Digital on Unsplash
  • 02
    Font - r/pettyrevenge. Posted by u/Terrible-Antelope680 Student goes to the wrong class all semester. Probably not "petty" revenge but one of the best stories I was given blessings to follow through with from the chair of the department. Spoiler, student got what they earned.
    via u/Terrible-Antelope680
  • 03
    Font - Years ago I was a grad student teaching a 101 or 102 (beginner/intro) course in the department. A few weeks in the withdrawal period for classes ends. My students got their grades up to that point, in person and posted online (because sometimes that gives them an idea if they want to withdraw from the class) as well as emailed some students that never showed up since day one or stopped that first week but clearly hadn't gotten around to officially dropping the course.
    via u/Terrible-Antelope680
  • 04
    Font - I emailed one student (let's call her Kate) that never even showed up to the first day but was still on my online roster (therefore they had an F in my class). I emailed Kate about this and asked they withdraw from the course (rude that they hadn't as it prevented other students from joining that first 2 week add/drop period).
    via u/Terrible-Antelope680
  • 05
    Font - Don't have the response anymore but remember Kate responded rather confused and aggressively sure she has been in my class since day one! Now, I had had some issues my first semester with my emails going to a different instructor in a different department who just happened to have the same first and last name as me, and since the university gave out emails as a combination
    via u/Terrible-Antelope680
  • 06
    Font - of your first and last name this caused issues, which were mostly fixed by the time I reached this situation but left some room for me to question exactly what was going on here. I sent another email confirming her name, MY name, the class that she was registered for and the class room number and time. Kate wrote back adamant that she was in fact showing up for my class. I asked her to then come speak with me in class or come talk to me during office hours (and giving her that info since
    via u/Terrible-Antelope680
  • 07
    Font - Well Kate never did show up! At midterms Kate got an F and another email from me. Don't believe I got a response and apparently seeing the F online was not a cause for concern? I let it be, other grad students and professors told me to leave it alone too as there was really nothing I could do. It became a bit of a silly story and from time to time people would ask for updates on this ridiculously confused student and we'd share theories.
    via u/Terrible-Antelope680
  • 08
    Font - So around finals guess who I hear back from?! Kate is panicked cause she sees she is failing my class (no s! I literally warned her no less than 4 times and grades had been posted for weeks!) and has realized her mistake was drum roll she had gone to the class room on the other side of the hall all semester...???...to a completely different class(subject) with an instructor with a different name and gender (our names are both
    via u/Terrible-Antelope680
  • 09
    Font - clearly gender specific). Now, none of that tipped her off. NOT being on his class roster didn't tip her off, nor did my string of emails before midterm? My warnings of her F I would have to give her if she didn't drop? (No she wasn't an ESL/ELL I found out later).
    via u/Terrible-Antelope680
  • 10
    Font - Well so that instructor that added Kate to his class roster was actually the new chair of the department. He had a little laugh about the situation (really he was also kind of at fault for letting it get that far as no one checked she had the prerequisites for his class, surely this involved some kind of "override" in the system adding students that way so may have needed a manual check of their credits which obviously wasn't done). He helped me through the decision to fail her (or I thin
    via u/Terrible-Antelope680
  • 11
    Font - class and other TA positions). I told him about all the emails I had sent her and tried to clarify all class info and asked her to come to my office or class to talk and she never showed, I think he lost more sympathy for her than I did. Kate was pleading with me to do anything but give her a failing grade and I was a busy grad student. (I also learned from the chair that she was not an English as a second language student, so I really couldn't see any excuse for her confusion at all). Ho
    via u/Terrible-Antelope680
  • 12
    Font - failing her. So I stopped responding to her emails (returning the favor she paid me at midterms) and just submitted her failing grade which felt both satisfying and terrible since it was in my power to give her an incomplete, but eff it, she didn't even earn an incomplete.
    via u/Terrible-Antelope680
  • 13
    Font - Surely no one could be this dense so our theory was she really just wanted to take his class over mine as they were different subjects? Icing on top for this ignorance/self righteous stubbornness; she was getting an A or B in his class but since she didn't have the prerequisites (MY CLASS for one) to actually be in his class she wasted her time, money (as she wasted my class and added the other she paid for both) and will have to retake it (unless they made some exception for her, like ho
    via u/Terrible-Antelope680
  • 14
    Font - In short, don't cut corners when it comes to your education kids, it's just more work on the other side. Also learn your freakin' instructors names!
    via u/Terrible-Antelope680
  • 15
    Font - ArreniaQ So the other professor had a student in the room that wasn't on the roster? I've been a college professor for over 10 years and the first thing we do is make sure every person there is on the list. If someone isn't on the list they have to go see the registrar right then. No staying in class if you're not supposed to be there. It is considered a security issue on our campus.
    via u/ArreniaQ
  • 16
    Font - BenjaminDrover +1. I had a student that never showed up for any lectures or tests, so he failed the class. Turns out, just before the term started, he was in a bad car accident that resulted in him being in a coma for several months. Once he woke up and recovered sufficiently, he contacted the administration and gave them evidence of all this to get his record expunged. The relevant dean asked me to verify that he had never showed up.
    via u/BenjaminDrover
  • 17
    Font - Wordnerdinthecity +3. I mean, if she could get an A or B in a class she hadn't taken the prereqs for, she didn't need the prereqs. The rest is hilarious though.
    via u/Wordnerdinthecity
  • 18
    Font - PayatTheDoor I failed TWO students this semester after both stopped coming to class after the second week, didn't turn assignments, didn't show for the exams, and didn't drop before the deadline. Neither responded to emails. I have no idea what happened to them.
    via u/PayatTheDoor
  • 19
    Gesture - SunflowerSpeaks +1 I have had this exact nightmare!!!!!
    via u/SunflowerSpeaks
  • 20
    Font - genius_emu +1. I showed up a little late for a midterm I didn't realize was happening. I was struggling with school at that point. I saw what was happening (why's it so quiet???), turned around, and marched down to the admin office to drop the class.
    via u/genius_emu
  • 21
    Font - Competitive-Push-715 +1 I cannot with people not being aware of their own s. She has one person to worry about. You clearly informed her. Just idiotic
    via u/Competitive-Push-715
  • 22
    Font - craigmorris 78 Sounds like everyone failed not just the student.
    via u/craigmorris78
  • 23
    Font - _Voidspren_Ⓡ I have a recurring nightmare that I'm back in college. I cannot for the life of me figure out what my classes are, where or when they are nor what any assignments are. Like the typical simple tasks you can't do in a dream and it's so frustrating. Maybe you're actually her dream lol. I did get confused once and thought I was at class for final review but it was the actual final. Thankfully I didn't really need it and got an A. But that did make my heart drop a few feet.
    via u/_Voidspren_
  • 24
    Font - un5weetened When I was a TA, most of my students didn't know the name of the course professor. I daresay only half could pick that person out of a line up. If they knew what gender the professor is, we were doing good
    via u/un5weetened

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teacher Professors college college student FAIL petty revenge failing
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