NEWTON COUNTY, Ga. — A professor at Georgia State's Perimeter campus in Newton County is no longer teaching in-person classes, the school confirmed Friday, after allegedly calling the police on two students for showing up late.
A TikTok posted on Thursday, by the user @briaisok, said that the two students, both of them Black, showed up to class two minutes late and sat down to begin taking notes when the professor asked them to leave.
One of the students, according to the TikTok, said "we paid to be here" before the professor left and then returned with two officers.
In a statement, Georgia State said the campus officers arrived "after being called by the faculty member and de-escalated the situation between the students and faculty member."
The TikTok disputed that account some, saying one of the officers held a student's belongings until she agreed to leave.
"Clearly, no crime had been committed so there were no arrests," the GSU statement said. "The provost and police chief have reached out to meet with the affected students. The professor is no longer teaching in-person classes."
@briaisok said in her TikTok that when they went to file a complaint with the student life department, they were "informed this was not the first time that the police have been called on a student for something irrational."
She also said one of the students involved felt the professor's actions were "in retaliation" for something that happened earlier in the semester.
"Time and time again we've seen the police being weaponized against Black people," @briaisok said in the TikTok. "Calling the police on two students for being two minutes late to class is extremely unreasonable and dangerous. Both of the students, a woman and a man, started crying because they were so terrified of what could happen to them."
