Professor hits 'breaking point,' fails entire class

A Texas A&M Galveston professor said he hit a "breaking point" and failed his entire Strategic Management class — a course he claimed required security guards for him to feel safe teaching.

In a scathing email to students, professor Irwin Horwitz called the class a disgrace to the school, saying "it became apparent they couldn't do some of the most simple and basic things they should have been able to do." A semester of backstabbing, lying, cheating, and disrespect, he said, had led him to fail everyone and quit teaching the course. "Enough was enough," he wrote. "Yesterday I reached the breaking point."

The email also claimed students had spread untrue online rumors about his wife and that he felt threatened enough to need police protection in the classroom. "I was dealing with cheating, dealing with individuals swearing at me both in and out of class. It got to the point that the school had to put security guards at that class and another class," Horwitz said, adding that the students' immaturity showed they weren't fit for the workforce.

Students were stunned. "Just ridiculous — I had never had a problem in the class. I thought I had done pretty well on the first test, and then I get an email saying I am going to get an F," said senior John Shaw, who feared the grade could cost him a job lined up after graduation.

Horwitz said that in two decades of teaching he had never failed a class: "This class is unique... sometimes learning incorporates tough love."

But the university wasn't having it. Vice president of academic affairs Dr. Patrick Louchouarn said the failing grades wouldn't stand: "None of them have failed until the end of the class, meaning the only reason a student would fail is because he or she has not performed the expectations for that particular class." The department head replaced Horwitz as instructor for the rest of the semester.

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Based on reporting by CBS Houston and KPRC, April 2015.