The University of Texas at San Antonio says it is investigating a possible instance of discrimination after video surfaced of a black student being escorted from class by armed police.
Officers were called after senior lecturer Anita Moss confronted the student about having her feet up in class.
The student’s classmate, Apurva Rawal, captured the incident.
“A girl had her feet up and the professor called the police after calling our class uncivil,” Rawal tweeted. “Mind you she wasn’t talking or interrupting lecture.”
When asked by another student why calling the police was necessary, Moss canceled the rest of class ahead of an exam.
In a pair of subsequent tweets, Rawal revealed that the professor had previously lectured students for their lack of attention.
The student responded to Rawal’s posts from her own Twitter account, thanking him for his presence of mind and tweets that followed.
Provost Kimberly Andrews Espy tweeted that the school “will respond accordingly when we can learn more.”
The president of the school, Taylor Eighmy, also responded to the episode saying in part: “Today we had an incident where one of our African American students was escorted from a biology class by members of UTSA’s police department at the request of a faculty member.
While the facts aren’t fully known regarding today’s incident, our Office of Equal Opportunity Services is already conducting an investigation into possible discrimination.”