< Off to the Advanced Business Bankruptcy Conference | Main | Dan Jenkins on Darrell Royal >
February 23, 2007
The final episode of "As the STCL Turns"
Earlier posts here and here passed along prior news reports on the ongoing soap opera involving former South Texas College of Law professor Neil McCabe, the school and one of McCabe's former female students, who accused McCabe in a federal lawsuit of -- among other things -- forcing the former student to have sex, sodomizing her and threatening to share her sexually with other STCL faculty members. McCabe admitted that he had a lapse of judgment in having a brief affair with the former student, but vehemently denied the former student's allegations of sexual misconduct. Nevertheless, the former student's accusations against McCabe led the STCL board of directors to strip McCabe of his tenure, and McCabe and the school eventually parted ways.
Well, as this earlier post noted, the female student's federal lawsuit against McCabe was eventually dismissed pursuant to a settlement between the parties, but the settlement did not cover McCabe's parallel state court defamation action against the former student over her allegations of sexual miscondut. And, according to this Texas Lawyer/Brenda Shapiro ($) article, McCabe continued to pursue that lawsuit and was ultimately successful:
The messy courthouse battle between former South Texas College of Law professor Neil C. McCabe and a student with whom he had an affair has ended three years after it began with a final judgment ordering the woman to pay McCabe a half-million dollars in damages and sanctions.On Jan. 2, 333rd District Judge Joseph "Tad" Halbach signed a final judgment that disposes of all claims McCabe brought against his former student in Neil C. McCabe v. Kimmy Fox Fredericks, which McCabe filed in 2004. Halbach earlier had granted a partial summary judgment in McCabe's favor on a defamation claim and granted his request for sanctions against Fredericks.
In his January 2004 petition, McCabe brought defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress causes of action against Fredericks. He alleged that Fredericks wrote a letter to South Texas revealing their relationship and falsely accusing him of sexually abusing her and of threatening to physically harm Fredericks' family and friends.
Despite the vindication of a judgment against his former student, McCabe told the Texas Lawyer that recovering the damages under the judgment would not come close to compensating him for his true injury:
McCabe says he has lost much more than money because of his affair with Fredericks and the resulting litigation."It's cost me my reputation, my 30-year teaching career. I was a professor at South Texas for almost 20 years. . . . It's a shame. I really loved teaching," he says. "I made a mistake, and it really cost me. The affair itself was a mistake."
By all accounts, McCabe was one of STCL's best teachers and served the school faithfully for many years. Assuming that McCabe was as conciliatory to his STCL colleagues when the former student first made the public accusations as he was in his above remarks to the Texas Lawyer, did STCL jump the gun by forcing McCabe out and failing to stand behind him until the litigation with the former student fully played out?
Posted by Tom at February 23, 2007 4:03 AM
Comments
A professor / student relationship is simply taboo. If the "sexual abuse" allegations were the only reason that McCabe was stripped of his tenure, then yes STCL jumped the gun, because they were unfounded. But, the fact that the affair happened at all, in my mind, is bad enough. There are just some lines you shouldn't cross.
Posted by: brent ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://blog.kir.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 23, 2007 9:29 AM
Brent, STCL may have such a policy against teacher-student relationships. However, my experience is that professional schools -- where the students tend to be older, if not necessarily more mature -- do not have the same strict ban of teacher-student relationships that most undergraduate schools have.
Posted by: Tom K. at February 23, 2007 9:44 AM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)