Dear Mister Comedy Teacher: Your texts are Harassment

Dear Harasser at a major comedy institution I shall not name,

I haven't been sure exactly how to respond to you, but I wanted to talk to you now that my head is clear. When I took your class last year I was in an extremely vulnerable position. Not only was I grieving the loss of a long term relationship, but I was also dealing with a myriad of other issues. I decided to take a class to do something for myself. I needed an escape and a safe space to create. After only two weeks, you violated that safe space for me and also violated the student teacher boundaries that are very clearly laid out in the Insitution's handbook. It didn't matter that I was also a faculty member and it didn't matter that I was a vetted member of the comedy community. During that time, I was your STUDENT. Regardless of what your intent was, what you did was selfish, reckless and inappropriate. I am done being polite and done making excuses for your behavior. Luckily for future students, you are no longer in a position where you can abuse your power as a teacher...at least not at this institution. The fact that this is not the first time you have pursued women like this and continued after they are not interested is what I find to be most disturbing. Let me clear this up for you. Your advances, compliments and check ins are unwanted. Your tenacity is not romantic, it is creepy. If I want help with writing or a pilot, I will seek out the advice of someone who can be trusted. In regards to your compliments, I will say this: I can make myself smile. I know I am beautiful. I know my own self worth and IF I find myself struggling with that I will seek out help from a therapist or reach out to a trusted friend or family member. I will not be looking for validation from a man who robbed me of a chance to get an unbiased opinion on my work. I hope you will move forward from this having learned an important lesson because it's a shame that someone who is so very good at his job could be so very bad at his job as well. Sincerely, A badass woman in the comedy community who stood up for herself