Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/04/texas-professors-sue-to-prevent-students-taking-time-off-for-health-care.html
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Assholes.
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Back in the before times, I missed many college classes without ever having to give an explanation for my absence. Are college degrees now solely based on attendance in Texas?
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That’s kinda what I was thinking. I can’t remember EVER giving a professor a reason for missing.
Most had a policy of something like “2 absences a quarter” or something like that. If you missed more, it was a letter grade drop. Didn’t matter why. So don’t waste your absence on a hangover, you might need it for something serious.
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This is what happens when you fail to Keep Austin Weird, it becomes just like the rest of the state.
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Let’s be grateful that a lot of decent people live there too. If they didn’t, the state wouldn’t have 13 Democratic House members right now. And this stuff ain’t set in stone, the state has voted Democratic in the past and very well might flip blue again in the future. California did, after all.
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I’m sure pretty much any right wing dude-bros still do this. However, women are no longer full citizens in Texas, so they get much harsher scrutiny.
It’s misogyny. 
Can we stop pretending like it’s anything other than that…
When the state starts to attack basic rights, keeping “insert name of blue city here” weird isn’t going to help. The only way for Austin to remain actually inclusive and “weird” is for the Democratic party to start making inroads in state elections again.
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While I wholeheartedly agree with the broader point that abortion is healthcare, this headline definitely buries the lede regarding the intentions of the professors here.
They are suing to control women’s bodies by attacking their right to access health care.
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And they flat-out fantasize about persecuting just about everyone not a CIS white male in their absolutely awful opinion piece of a filing.
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They very much see the dystopia that they want just in reach, and if the good people of texas are going to survive, they’re going to have to fight back. Texas is more like my state of Georgia than it is like Mississippi or Alabama. The demographics are changing, and the majority comes primarily from vicious gerrymandering.
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Aside from the specific flavor of asshole on display here; it seems like this tantrum would require that professors be given access to medical data for any and all medical absences; which seems exceptionally problematic for obvious reasons.
I’d also be…very…skeptical that this sort of thing would pass muster as a legitimate educational interest in fulfilling an education record to fulfill a professional responsibility; if the matter is being handled by student health services and is a FERPA record(and, if through some cloud-cuckoo trolley logic it is deemed a legitimate disclosure; I’m guessing that bellicose forced birthers are not qualified to STFU about the record as the law requires); and more skeptical still if it’s a HIPAA record because it’s being handled elsewhere.
This also seems like one of those situations where loud fundies see the most immediate opportunity to maintain a healthy Caesar/God distinction by mainlining that sweet, sweet, state power; but where making the change they request would open the door to an endless parade of follow-on nonsense: Is there any reason why professors who think that cosmetic dentistry is vanity, not medicine, wouldn’t be equally placed to refuse an dental appointment where the student can’t demonstrate a King Tut-caliber dental abscess? Or some ‘naturopathy’ enthusiast just insist that any time spent on ‘allopathic’ medicine isn’t a legitimate medical absence? Or someone with strong opinions on pain scales to insist that obviously you don’t need that much time to recuperate from $INJURY? Or literally any other instance of someone who is neither a doctor(most of the time) or your doctor(even you, MDs on the medical faculty) playing doctor based on what they imagine a case to involve?
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Don’t take philosophy at the U of Texas, or you can get stuck with this dumb prof that will make your life miserable…should be a major take away from this.
I hope that the philosophy department is thoroughly humiliated, because of this.
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I had a class with Bonevac when I was a student at UT. He seemed like a genuinely nice guy, and apparently was considered something of a wunderkind for getting tenure at a young age.
I am surprised and dismayed to learn he’s such a towering asshole.
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Again, this is predicated on the idea that women are NOT full citizens and you can violate their rights with impunity.
They don’t care about the rule of law. Those they see as not deserving of equal rights (women, POC, LGBQT+ people, non-Christians or the “wrong” kind of Christians, etc) do not get those protections, while white, straight, cisgendered, the “right” kind of Christians DO. Fascists use the law to oppress their “enemies” and maintain control, not to ensure equal rights. This is precisely how they intend these oppressive laws to work…
They are not working from the same set of concepts about the law that you or I are.
Well, you’re not a woman, and I’m guessing the women in your class might have had a very different impression of him.
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Sounds like these professors want to turn classes in to a participation award. /snark
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Who TF cares how much time any student misses from the classes they’re paying for??
I had some known-crap profs in single section mandatory courses, so it was pretty standard to skip the confusing lectures, do group peer study, and write the exam.
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No…? It’s obvious why these asshats want to sue students for attendance issues, but how can skipping class even be something they can sue over?
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Why do people want to live in Texas?
At least once a week, I get a positive reinforcement of our decision to leave Texas.
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Because they are not playing by the rules or by the law. The POINT is to “put women in their place”. I promise that there are tons of dudes in these professors classes who are skipping with wild abandon. They are NOT being targeted for a law suit. Why do YOU think that would be?
This is the world that they want, a different set of rules for women. Ideally, women would not be going to college in the first place, or at the very least their only “goal” would be getting a husband, not an education.
They are showing us who they are, so maybe believe them.
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