University Graduates

Are you a creative writing instructor at a university? How do you handle potentially dangerous students?

I'm curious how creative writing instructors at colleges and universities handle students who write about really disturbing things and who seem potentially dangerous to themselves and others? Are instructors privy to students' mental health records? Do they let such students get away with violent or disturbing writing in an effort NOT to stir too much trouble? Do you become proactive in trying to help these students? Do you undergo training to deal with problem students? As a creative writing student at a university, I often see disturbing stuff brought into workshops. I'm wondering what the profs think of all this. Thanks to any answers!

Public Comments

1. Instructors don't have access to that kind of information. If they have good reason to believe that a student is suicidal or a threat, they may tip off the counseling center or mental health services, who, depending on the situation, may reach out to the student to offer help or even require an evaluation as a condition of continued enrollment at the school. Usually they are not encouraged to step in and try to handle the situation themselves. They're not trained to do so. Some universities have some sort of training workshop or handout to help profs/TAs with warning signs to look for and how approach these situations. Others don't. Part of the problem is that it's difficult to judge from creative writing whether there's a real problem or if it's just, well, creative writing. A very well adjusted author may find interest in writing from the perspective of a psychopath or pedophile or some other disturbed persona, and it takes some guts to do so because of the unfortunate tendancy to read everything as somehow autobiographical. Sometimes good literature comes out of it, though, and most creative writing instructors at the college level are not going to censor student work on account of offensive content. That said, a lot of writing students do use writing as an outlet for personal issues and if there's a pattern--not just a few pieces--and/or warning signs in behavior, there might be cause to tip off mental health services. If you're truly concerned, you can do so yourself. It would be anonymous.