UTSA professor who had black student ousted from classroom replaced

SAN ANTONIO – UPDATE: The professor involved in the incident will have her class taught by someone else for the remainder of the semester, UTSA President Taylor Eighmy said Tuesday. 

He said in a letter, "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."

(Previously)

The president of the University of Texas at San Antonio sent out a letter to students and staff members Monday about an incident in which an African American student was escorted out of a biology class by campus police at the professor’s request.

The school is investigating this as a possible case of discrimination.

UTSA President Taylor Eighmy said the facts of the incident aren’t fully known.

Apurva Rawal, a UTSA student who was in the class at the time of the incident, posted video of the student being escorted out of class to Twitter and said that the professor called campus police on the student for having her feet up in class.

"Mind you she wasn't talking or interrupting lecture," Rawal said.

Rawal said that the professor "went on a whole tirade about how uncivil we all were because a few students were on their phone or not paying attention."

That's when the professor stepped out of class to call police on the female student.

A woman identified herself as the student who was escorted out of class, saying she was told to leave or she would be escorted out by officers.

"I never disobeyed the student code of conduct. Not once," she wrote. Additionally, the student said she is filing a police report of her own on the incident.

As of this publication, the student did not return a request for comment.

UTSA released the following statement to KSAT regarding the incident:

“We are aware of this situation and are working closely with the student and Department of Biology to better understand what happened today.”

In an email to students, Eighmy said that the Office of Equal Opportunity Services is conducting an investigation into the incident and the university is looking into how the classroom was managed.

"This concerns me greatly, and it’s incumbent upon us as an institution to face this head-on," Eighmy said in his email to students. "It’s something that we need to address immediately as a university community."