...and his or her complaint was entirely false.

Example 1: One 15-year-old girl complained at length during a parent-teachers-counselor-student conference about how I’d mistreated her and “had it in for her”...and she finished by saying it was just how I’d treated her last semester. The only problem was that I didn’t even teach her last semester! She was the only student in my 30 years who ever stood right up in class and just started yelling at me (I forget about what)—one of many things that had precipitated that conference. I can’t imagine how I would have felt if that girl had made all those accusations during a graduation ceremony. (I guess I could have stood up and announced that she wasn’t even on my first-semester roll, but the damage would certainly already have been done.)

Example 2: During my second or third year, I had my first incidence of being told “you’re prejudiced against me because I’m ___.” (Whatever. White, black, Asian, Latino, gay, straight—insert name of group.) Well, no, this class was a favorite of mine, and so was this one particular girl. She was bright, full of natural curiosity and enthusiasm. A joy, in other words. After school one day, she dropped by my classroom to talk. I was enjoying the one-on-one and the laughter when, out of the blue, she was crying and accusing me of being prejudiced against her because she was ____. I was floored but tried to talk to her about it. And I also worried about it and have never forgotten it. (Remember, I was about 24.) I didn’t have the confidence to tell myself that she was just being a hormonal teenager, or that she might be emotionally disturbed. Instead, I just allowed myself to feel bad about it. So, 25 years later, I got her daughter in my class. Lovely girl, bright, but all over the map at times emotionally. Just like mom.

These are just two of many examples I could give to illustrate that a student’s accusations are not always accurate. We know this is true from experience with our own teenagers: “You hate me and won’t let me do anything.” Or “You’re so unfair—my brother gets to do ___ [whatever], and you like him better.”

Is it right, or moral, to accuse someone in a public setting (or to make sarcastic implications, which I think is almost worse) when there’s really no way for the person to defend himself? Is this not slander, if any of it should be judged untrue in a court of law? Even if there is some truth to the matter, should people have the right to proclaim part-truths about someone’s competence or character into a microphone at a public gathering? I guess some people in the national news are doing that very thing, seemingly every day.

Just my 2 cents.