Slashdot | A Teacher Asking Students To Destroy Notes?

Slashdot | A Teacher Asking Students To Destroy Notes?

OK, in the (likely) event that I ever pursue education in the future, I'm going to make damned sure that I enter into a written contract with each and every professor/trainer/teacher, wherein I obtain an explicit permission that any notes (note: not recordings but notes I create of my own accord based on the information presented in the classroom/labs via lecture and otherwise) I take on the presentations made during class are and will forever belong to me and that such professor/trainer/teacher shall have no right, claim, expectation or any such expectation of having my notes delivered unto them following conclusion of the course/training.

Oh, and by the way, for the record, IANAL and TINLA (but I did attend law school for two years); however, in order to prevent such a thing from happening again, I suggest (in the form of friendly advice) that every student enter into such a contract.

On a personal note, I really would like to see the student take the teacher to court and sue for the return of his/her notes or, failing that, for damages seeking compensation for the student's time and materials used to create such notes. To me, there is an implied contract (with the educational institution that the student pays to attend) that a student would be able to retain their own, non-verbatim notes for whatever use they see fit. That has been the tradition of educational institutions for ages upon ages.

I believe (and again, IANAL) that the professor in this story stepped way over the line when she reached into the student's backpack and physically removed his notebook from his person. Again, TINLA but if I were the student, I would have filed a police report and accused the professor of robbery because, in essence, this is what she did.

Just my US$0.02 on an educational injustice....