Professor Berates 81-Year-Old Continuing Studies Student for Coming Late to Class Again
By Otto Foots
CAMPUS — Upset that a student had once again failed to show a modicum of courtesy to him and his HIST-147 class, Professor Alan Geraldi, 54, scathingly scolded Continuing Studies student Dr. Edith Patterson, 81, for showing up late to his class for the second time April 21.
“Oh, look who it is,” Geraldi reportedly said, interrupting his introductory remarks to
launch into the verbal attack. “Seems Ms. Patterson stayed out a little late at Rhino’s again last night. Should we also turn off the lights so you don’t get a headache, Ms. Patterson, since we’ve already allowed you to waste our time by coming in late?”
launch into the verbal attack. “Seems Ms. Patterson stayed out a little late at Rhino’s again last night. Should we also turn off the lights so you don’t get a headache, Ms. Patterson, since we’ve already allowed you to waste our time by coming in late?”Patterson had arrived on campus approximately 30 minutes before the start of class, but nobody had bothered to tell her Tondorf Road was closed for construction. She spent 20 minutes trying to park her car, unfamiliar with the area and its parking alternatives. It also didn’t help that she had to use a cane instead of her usual walker, as Geraldi had gotten upset the week before that the walker was in his way as he walked back and forth lecturing at the front of the room.
“Apparently Daddy can pay $50,000 a year for you to go here, not to mention funding all your spending sprees on M Street with his credit card, but he can’t buy getting you to class on time,” Geraldi continued, snickering. “But that’s okay, because the world revolves around you, Ms. Patterson, doesn’t it?”
Patterson was trying to sit down in a desk at the back of class without falling down and was trying not to cry, though her tear ducts barely seemed to work these days.
“Who picked ‘German History Before World War II’ for you?” Geraldi asked, unaware Patterson first became interested in the country during a month-long trip there in 1987, during which her husband Jerry finally succumbed to colon cancer. “Is Daddy trying to make you more cultured?”
As a consequence of the 10-minute tirade, Geraldi was forced to cut 20 PowerPoint slides from his lecture.
Patterson grew up in a working-class family during the Great Depression, served as a nurse during the Korean War, and was a dental hygienist before becoming the first woman admitted to the Baylor School of Dentistry. She spent years fighting perceptions about the ability and intellectual capacity of female dentists, and her first attempt to start a private practice failed in 1958.
“It’s all well and nice that you can afford that Burberry coat and can live comfortably off Daddy’s trust fund for the next 30 years,” said Geraldi, sweating and breathing heavily at the end of his rant. “But the rest of your peers are trying to learn something and get a degree so they can make a living for themselves. So for their sake, I’m moving on.”
In the course of trying to seat herself, Patterson’s cane slid across the carpet out of her reach, and she would probably have to embarrass herself again by asking one of the other students to help her on the way out of class.
Geraldi returned his attention at the end of his lecture to chide Patterson for making him hold the class late.
“I can see you’re still sleeping, like you have the whole time I’ve been lecturing, Ms. Patterson, but I’d like to—” he said, before collapsing on the floor, having a heart attack. He was pronounced dead two hours later at Georgetown University Hospital.
Nobody realized, however, that Patterson had herself suffered a stroke and died during Geraldi’s lecture until another Continuing Studies student tried to wake her up in the last class to use the room that day at 8:05 PM.
Edith Patterson.