Anita Moss
San Antonio, TX — Anita Moss, a white professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, is now under fire after allegedly kicking a Black student out of her class and calling the police on her just because she put her feet up on a seat in a lecture hall during class. Moss, who has been removed from teaching, is also now under investigation for potential discrimination.A video of the incident that was recorded by another student in the class showed the moment three campus officers came at the classroom. Moss can be seen leading them to the Black student, identified as Paige Burgess, who stood up calmly and silently and was escorted out.
The classmate, Apurva Rawal, posted the video on Twitter on Monday. The viral video has since garnered a whopping four million views.
“So this happened today in class. A girl had her feet up and the professor called the police after calling our class uncivil,” Rawal tweeted. “This professor stopped class entirely and stepped out to call the police just because one student had her feet up on a seat in front of her. Mind you she wasn’t talking or interrupting lecture.”
About an hour after Rawal’s tweet, Twitter user @FavoritePaigeee, identified herself as Paige Burgess who is the student in the video and thanked Rawal for recording what happened and posting it.
“Thank you for this threat Apurva,” Burgess tweeted. “I seriously can’t thank my class enough for this. They literally stood up for me after I was escorted out by 3 officers and called [the professor] out for being disruptive to them as well this whole semester. Completely overwhelmed and thankful.”
Regarding the issue, the University of Texas at San Antonio said they had launched two separate investigations to look into the incident — one for “potential discrimination” and another on “classroom management.”
UTSA president Taylor Eighmy also noted that Moss won’t be teaching class again anytime soon. However, it was not confirmed whether or not Moss has been suspended while the investigation is ongoing.
“For the best interest of all involved, the faculty member’s classes will be taught by another faculty member for the remainder of the semester,” Eighmy wrote in a letter to students. “The student involved in the incident has been welcomed back to class and offered support services. Once the two investigations are complete next week, appropriate administrative action will be determined.”
Meanwhile, Moss has been called ‘Bio Betty’ on Twitter for calling police on a petty reason.
Dr. Kate Shaw tweeted, “Pretty straightforward here. [African-American] student stretched out in class not bothering anyone, talking or disrupting class & racist [white woman] bio [professor] called campus police… not 1 student policy says ANYTHING about students not being able to put feet up on the back of chairs. #BioBetty”
“She should be fired. Immediately. Jesus Christ the class wasn’t even full,” another added.
Watch the live footage below: