Jason in general kinda lowers the coolness level by at least two points. Sal would even that out but she’s left and the coolness is sinking with every passing second.
Becky is actually pretty close to being a bit cool there. I think she just needs a prop. Like if she was playing a handheld gaming system or had her phone, or even eating a slice of cake, that would present a certain “I don’t care how I sit while I’m doing shit.” aloofness that’s cool.
Needfuldoer
Amber could have that covered, but social gatherings are kind of her kryptonite.
Demoted Oblivious
She should actually take one leg off the chair and play a handheld. Her posture would then be screaming about how shes better than needing this chair, but she’s gonna use it for herself anyways, just because.
Needfuldoer
I think that was a reference to their most recent Superb Owl ad.
Needfuldoer
This was supposed to be a comment to your other comment on my other comment. Dangit.
I mean, I think Becky considers her a friend, even if Ruth doesn’t entirely reciprocate. If nothing else, it’s clear Ruth is extremely important to Becky, in part because of how much Ruth’s struggles (what she knows of them, anyway) hit close to home for her. She’s an orphan, like Becky is. She was– and still might be, or could become again– suicidal, like Bonnie was.
And I think that Ruth, no matter how much she tries to distance herself as an authority figure from the people under her, recognizes that connection on some level.
I think Ruth likes Becky alright, she probably just doesn’t know her especially well. Not like she knows any of them that intimately, really, I guess, outside of Jennifer/Billie of course, or to an extent Amber, neither of whom are there yet.
I have the feeling that Ruth genuinely likes most of the main cast. She tries to keep them at a distance because being close to people tends to not work out well for her.
I don’t get Sal being jealous here. She boinked Jason once, failed the class because she still didn’t get the material and he got fired. All things considered she’s at worst come out at neutral
Also, Jason was obligated to turn her down. He took advantage.
MrSmith
He certainly was, just as she was obligated to not flash her tatas at him and freely offer up sexy times in return for good grades (is that prostitution?)
I’m not going to condemn Jason too much over this though because its quite easy in theory to say that yes you’ll turn down the hot chick but its quite another when the hot chick is right there with her norks out freely offering it up to you
He should have resisted the big temptation and he didn’t and he got fired for it which seems an appropriate action for him and nothing official for Sal
However part of my viewpoint also takes note of his young age, no wife/girlfriend and he didn’t change her grades
FaerwenOfValenwood
Um.
MrSmith
I’m not saying he didn’t mess up (he did) and I’m not saying he didn’t deserve to be fired (he did)
Spencer
Ethically, I don’t care that two adults boned. Professionally, it is a major component of Jason’s job that he not fuck students and even if a student rips her shirt off and jumps on top of him, it is Jason’s actual job to remove himself from the situation.
MrSmith
Of course it is and he should have and didn’t and paid the price.
However it’s easy to say what you should do (as Tyson said “everybody has a plan until you’re punched in the face) buy it’s a different story when it’s not hypothetical, that it’s a different story when it’s right there in front of you in the flesh
Jason was weak and paid the price whereas Sal got away with it scot free
Spencer
Sal got away with it scott free because she has no legal or professional responsibility.
Like, I dunno how to tell you this, man, but even when they’re in the same age group (which is why this is something that doesn’t bug me on a moral standpoint), a teacher has 100% of the responsibility not to fuck their student. If they’re weak enough in that exact second, then they don’t get to be a teacher anymore and the student doesn’t need to be responsible for anything legally because of all the people in the world a teacher can’t fuck, it’s their student.
thejeff
I can see the argument that the student bears some responsibility for attempting a sex for grades deal. Just making a pass because you’re attracted is fine, but attempted bribery is still a problem.
MrSmith
Incorrect. Sal wanted her grades changed and, in her mind, was offering Jason sex to make this happen.
So yes Sal bears some responsibility for this situation because she made the offer because (and I’ll admit I’m only assuming here) the university probably has rules around cheating and sex for grades etc etc
Spencer
How do you write “incorrect” and “I’ll admit I’m only assuming here” like that in the same post.
Sal acted unethically (also in the heat of the moment because she was bored, Jason’s a bad teacher, she hadn’t done it in a while, and she’s constantly being told her efforts mean nothing and the only thing that matters is the end result), except the issue ain’t the ethics, the issue is that a TA fucked a student. Ethically it was two idiots doing something rash where one of them had a professional responsibility to say no despite his eagerness and did not.
Like if this whole conversation is about whether Jason took advantage of Sal; professionally yes, he was someone responsible for her grades who had sex with someone who did so with the assumption that Jason would change her grades for it, and if Jason is someone who can be swayed by Sal flashing her tatas then he doesn’t get to be a teacher.
That’s the boring legal talk, but the reality is that it was the early days of a character dramedy series where two of cast hadn’t grown at all yet and fucked in a circumstance they shouldn’t have fucked. I don’t even know why you’re trying to push this as such a failing on Sal’s part because yeah I guess it was, but nobody involved in or out of universe actually gives a shit and the only real problem that occurred was that, and say it with me, the TA fucked a student.
Spencer
Like, dude, these posts just kinda come off like “Jason just couldn’t help himself, why did Sal have to seduce him, she’s so responsible for this!”
MrSmith
You stated: ‘Sal got away with it scott free because she has no legal or professional responsibility’
Its incorrect because Sal offered sex for grades which, I’m assuming because I can’t be bothered going through the University of Indiana rules, is probably considered a form of bribery
Sal has some culpability in this instance
MrSmith
‘Like, dude, these posts just kinda come off like “Jason just couldn’t help himself, why did Sal have to seduce him, she’s so responsible for this!”
Again incorrect, this is what I stated:
‘(as did he)’
‘He should have resisted the big temptation and he didn’t and he got fired for it which seems an appropriate action for him and nothing official for Sal’
‘I’m not saying he didn’t mess up (he did) and I’m not saying he didn’t deserve to be fired (he did)’
‘Of course it is and he should have and didn’t and paid the price.’
However Sal has some responsibility for what happened, this was not a case of Jason telling Sal he’d increase her grades for sex.
Sal shouldn’t have offered sex for grades to Jason and Jason shouldn’t have had sex with Sal except Jason (because of Penny) lost his job and was nearly deported and nothing happened to Sal
Two things can be right at the same time and infantilizing characters helps no one
temperaryobsessor
Sal was wrong to attempt bribery. It corrodes the value of good math grades for the other students. If Jason realized it was bribery Jason would be worse to accept the bribe and even worse to not hold up his end.
I am willing to give Jason the slightest leeway because it appears he didn’t realize that Sal was trying to bribe him. But I still blame him more.
In bribery situations I tend to hold the bribe taker as more responsible for the bribery especially if the bribe taker is in a position of power relative to the briber. Yes even it the bribe is right there.
Its common sense that you don’t have sex with someone you hold a position of power over because its difficult to tell the difference between no they just wanted to have sex with me and it didn’t effect their grades and they knew it wouldn’t and so we scratched each other’s backs and I’m concerned about your performance you wouldn’t want to fail did I mention you look really sexy today.
So I do blame Jason for what happened, more than Sal. I don’t think she was right but he was worse.
Spencer
I don’t know how else to explain with actual words that nobody cares that two people boned, and the only sticking point anyone has any reason to care about is the professional standard of not fucking a student, where the standard of judgment isn’t whether a teacher was sufficiently tempted by a student it’s that the teacher did it at all and any amount of temptation needs to be rejected regardless of circumstance. Jason’s not a bad person for having sex in the heat of the moment but whether or not he’s a bad person isn’t even up for debate.
Sal did something wrong, okay, everyone has acknowledged that because it’s a comic about 19 year olds being wrong about everything all the time. Everyone here gets that Sal came onto him (with his young age and no girlfriend/wife) and nobody really cares because the ethics of doing something stupid in the heat of the moment that she didn’t benefit from in any capacity because Jason regretted it enough to stick to his standards, as if we’re acknowledging Sal did something morally wrong ergo she is not getting the result she wanted, don’t actually matter when talking about the professional standard of not fucking your student under any circumstance.
Do you get it yet? You’re trying to intermingle the topic of Jason’s professional responsibility, where fucking a student is the literal last thing he is ever supposed to do and is grounds for immediate termination, with the moral responsibility of whether it’s wrong to come onto someone for a grade boost. Of course it’s wrong, that’s why Sal didn’t get anything out of it and had to actually learn and improve at math.
temperaryobsessor
As a professional you don’t fuck your students. I you can’t hold that line even in the face of temptation you don’t get to be a teacher.
However those rules are not arbitrary we have those rules for two reasons. First because any form of bribery or possible nepotism degrades the value of grades,and secondly because when people in positions of power have sex with those they have power over it can be tough to tell the difference between fully consensual sex, consensual bribery sex and holding someones grades/job hostage. Both from the outside and from the inside these three can be tough to tell apart. The second reason is why it was 100% Jason’s responsibility despite them both being adults. It doesn’t help that he failed to be professional before hand either.
I also think pretending you don’t control whether you act on sexual desires is what leads to people asking rape victims what they were wearing that night.
BBCC
I just want to point out Jason DID know Sal wanted him to change his grades. In the preview for their slip shine on Tumblr, he responds to her ‘You said my efforts don’t matter, ah’m only being judged against my marks’ with ‘This is NOT what I meant and you know it.’ He then tells her it would be unethical. Aaaand then he kisses her.
Demoted Oblivious
As a reminder, Jason did /not/ get fired for being involved with Sal. He got fired because of a *false* accusation by his office mate, who did not know Jason was doing anything. She just threw him under the bus. When Jason faced his tribunal, he didn’t dispute it, because he knew he had fucked up, but it wasn’t Sal’s involvement that got him caught.
MrSmith
Yes true. Should Jason have fought it?
Losing a job and potentially losing the right to stay in the country is quite a punishment for Penny’s vindictiveness
Demoted Oblivious
That is a very good question and one that frankly is very complicated. Should he have got involved with Sal?. Probably not, but at the same time, the policy exists to prevent predation and abuse of power. And while certainly a complex interaction, at the end of the day neither party seems to object to what they did. So, assuming that line of thought is true, the punishment being inflicted is far out of proportion to the infraction. This is not intended to be an idictment nor a defense of Jasons and Sals behavior. If anything, I think the policy itself is overeaching in being completely inflexible. While I would argue that adults should have more patients and be willing to wait until after the semester, the fact is that many people simply don’t care, and in fact a few (on both sides) would likely see this as both a kink and a featger in their cap. And we know Sal’s age, but Jason seems also to be quite young, possibly going straight for a degree to a master’s.
MrSmith
I don’t know what Jason was thinking but I’m going with the idea that he knew he did wrong therefore the firing was justified and combine that with if he had said anything then there would have been blow back on Sal since Sal would most likely admit to trying to get her grades changed so honour demands he keep quiet and take his punishment like a man and not say anything
Rules between professors and students should definitely be kept up but I wonder if rules between TAs and students, due to the similar ages, could be changed, just not sure how though to avoid power imbalances
Spencer
It’s not really complicated.
His job told him not to fuck Sal under any circumstance.
Jason fucked Sal because it’s a character drama named after the characters being stupid all the time.
Jason was pegged as having fucked a student and couldn’t bring himself to lie about it even though the accusation was intended as a diversion without a kernel of truth because he genuinely felt guilty and remorseful that he let down the professional standards asked of him.
Jason also seems to consider those professional standards as moral standards, and consequently he moved on from teaching to take up bartending, which is fine, because as much as Jason wanted to be a good teacher he never showed any aptitude for it.
thejeff
Two Points.
1) As much as I agree Jason should have been fired for what he did, I’m appalled at the process. They didn’t investigate. He was supposed to bring the unnamed student in question if he wanted to defend himself. It simultaneously manages to be an easy way to railroad someone who’s falsely accused or with only circumstantial evidences and an easy way for the unscrupulous to pressure their victim to clear them.
2) Despite his apparent lack of aptitude, I was more interested in him potentially trying to do better than in Jason the bartender. He’s a side character though and that might have taken up more space than warranted. I wonder if Willis decided after the fact that sex with a student was something he didn’t want to downplay to the point of leaving him as a TA.
Sal kind of doesn’t like Jason. He was a shit teacher, didn’t follow through with his end of their bargain and is generally kind of a snobby prick.
She also didn’t fail, she found a better tutor in Wonderbread and managed to turn her grades around. Another point against Jason, she was capable of grasping the material, he was just a bad tutor
I also feel I should mention that Jason profiled Sal pretty hard when they first met and I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it didn’t have a racist undercurrent to it. Maybe you could argue Sal didn’t make a great first impression but it was still pretty fucked up and I don’t blame Sal if she holds a grudge against him for that.
Thag Simmons
Jason grew up in an old money english family. There was probably a racial element
Demoted Oblivious
Classist. I’m not saying there isn’t a racist element too, but my read on old english money is that they’re even more classist than they are racist.
Mr D
And that, in and of itself, is a classist sentiment.
(Mind you, punching up and all that)
Demoted Oblivious
Yes and no. Unlike downwards classism and racism which have been repeatedly disproven, and yet continue to be used as an excuse to oppress, the haves have nearly always and do almost universally continue to oppress the have nots. I am absolutely unashamed of making that claim. If the wealthy don’t want to be judged for being selfish greedy assholes, all they have to do is prove they aren’t. It’s not like my claim is something that can’t be disputed or disproved. So to any wealthy people who object to my calling them out as described, prove me a bigot instead of a person with a valid critisism of a disproptionate distribution of wealth and those who hold it. Go on. I’ll wait, but I won’t hold my breath.
Thag Simmons
The British empire spent a very long time forcing a correlation between those two things.
Demoted Oblivious
Yup, and while recent popular attitudes in the UK are definitely a return to that, there was a time at least that they abolished slavery, and celebrated and toasted black american troops for their help in the war. It’s a bloody mixed bag alright.
thejeff
While continuing to oppress non-white populations in their colonial possessions (until they broke free) and treat immigrants from those countries as second class citizens at home.
It’s a mixed bag, as it always is. They’re not as awful as the US in many ways, but they’ve definitely got their own problems and have all along.
DailyBrad
I don’t know that it’d have had any racial element, but literally the very first time they talked, he hit on her, so I don’t think that got them off on the right foot, Sal saying she didn’t come there to be “hormoned on by Pee-Wee Herman”, I think it was.
Demoted Oblivious
Yeshe saw her and declined to change office hours because of “ethics”, which was (more than) enough for Sal to not want to be hormoned on, as you so capably recalled. How do y’all remember this shit a decade later? (oh wait, collective concious, and the neuron that fires makes it’s owner post. Still, bloody impressive)
Sal doesn’t really like Jason very much – she thinks he’s an asshole – but he’s an asshole she’s attracted to and she’s more than a little lonely in that department of late so seeing him annoys her. Doubly so since he’s here with someone else.
Meagan
This makes more sense than anything else I’ve seen. She is attracted to him, maybe against her better judgment, so she’s gonna be awkward around him.
BBCC
Yeah, being attracted to someone you think is an asshole is rough, especially when you’re lonely and he shows up with someone else.
Steelbright
in my experience it’s also possible to be annoyed that someone you’d want to bone casually/non-romantically doesn’t want to bone you at all anymore, or someone that you know things wouldn’t work out romantically with has found somebody that it looks like they WILL work out with… yep, it doesn’t always make sense or follow rules. feelings be like that.
Spencer
Yeah that’s a good angle. Sal’s looking at Ruth and thinking “I don’t compare to that?” even though it’s not a competition and even if it were, Jason wouldn’t even know it.
175 thoughts on “Stringbean”
Ana Chronistic
I guess turning it around and straddling it isn’t an option
So… you’re sitting in a chair the wrong way
Librain
Turning it around and straddling it is basically my go-to life hack for just about anything and everything…
And everyone…
Reltzik
Becky: You need something to idly toss into the air and catch in a bored manner, like a ball or hackysack or hat.
Felix
exactly.
Clif
Actually, doing just about anything in a bored manner would work. From smoking to juggling chainsaws. Its the bored part that sells it.
Wagstaff
Don’t worry Becky! You’re getting there!
And if you can’t sit in a chair wrong, you can always toss and turn in your bed at the mercy of your strands of nucleic acid!!!
Dara
She’s trying so hard, she’ll figure it out xD
Deanatay
It’s the deoxyribose that ruins it all, actually.
Doctor_Who
You don’t know the half of it, Jason.
Handcuffing you to the door? That’s like a two on the Ruthless scale. Pray you never see ten.
King Daniel
What’s a two-femur removal rank on that scale?
Reltzik
Nothing. 0. That means Ruth’s done with you.
Sirksome
Well this party got way less cool and it’s not just because Sal left.
Thag Simmons
is it the bowtie or the sitting?
Sirksome
Jason in general kinda lowers the coolness level by at least two points. Sal would even that out but she’s left and the coolness is sinking with every passing second.
Becky is actually pretty close to being a bit cool there. I think she just needs a prop. Like if she was playing a handheld gaming system or had her phone, or even eating a slice of cake, that would present a certain “I don’t care how I sit while I’m doing shit.” aloofness that’s cool.
Needfuldoer
Amber could have that covered, but social gatherings are kind of her kryptonite.
Demoted Oblivious
She should actually take one leg off the chair and play a handheld. Her posture would then be screaming about how shes better than needing this chair, but she’s gonna use it for herself anyways, just because.
Needfuldoer
I think that was a reference to their most recent Superb Owl ad.
Needfuldoer
This was supposed to be a comment to your other comment on my other comment. Dangit.
Demoted Oblivious
Noted. Fickle are the comment reply daemons.
Nono
…why IS Ruth here? Not like she’s required to supervise every party in the dorm and she’s not friends with anybody present.
King Daniel
She outright says Joyce invited her in the second panel.
Thag Simmons
because she was invited and is friendsish with most of the cast
Deanatay
And because she possesses empathy.
Or so we are led to believe
RassilonTDavros
I mean, I think Becky considers her a friend, even if Ruth doesn’t entirely reciprocate. If nothing else, it’s clear Ruth is extremely important to Becky, in part because of how much Ruth’s struggles (what she knows of them, anyway) hit close to home for her. She’s an orphan, like Becky is. She was– and still might be, or could become again– suicidal, like Bonnie was.
And I think that Ruth, no matter how much she tries to distance herself as an authority figure from the people under her, recognizes that connection on some level.
DailyBrad
I think Ruth likes Becky alright, she probably just doesn’t know her especially well. Not like she knows any of them that intimately, really, I guess, outside of Jennifer/Billie of course, or to an extent Amber, neither of whom are there yet.
Needfuldoer
It also helps that Becky is impervious to Ruth’s looming.
https://www.dumbingofage.com/2021/comic/book-11/03-see-you-in-the-funny-page/headed/
Demoted Oblivious
Pepsi? A freakin’ PEPSI?!
sultryglebe
Ruth does have some thoughts on parental loss, and Jason knows something about bad dads.
Xaeon
I have the feeling that Ruth genuinely likes most of the main cast. She tries to keep them at a distance because being close to people tends to not work out well for her.
zee
I mean, who better to help deal with the birthday of a passed parent? She can honestly probably give some legit advice
Cmasta1992
I don’t get Sal being jealous here. She boinked Jason once, failed the class because she still didn’t get the material and he got fired. All things considered she’s at worst come out at neutral
King Daniel
Twice, and she actually didn’t end up failing the class (although no credit to Jason on that score, it was Danny who ended up really helping her).
MrSmith
Possibly misplaced anger, she knows she messed up (as did he) but sometimes its easier to place all the blame on the other person
Or not
BarerMender
Also, Jason was obligated to turn her down. He took advantage.
MrSmith
He certainly was, just as she was obligated to not flash her tatas at him and freely offer up sexy times in return for good grades (is that prostitution?)
I’m not going to condemn Jason too much over this though because its quite easy in theory to say that yes you’ll turn down the hot chick but its quite another when the hot chick is right there with her norks out freely offering it up to you
He should have resisted the big temptation and he didn’t and he got fired for it which seems an appropriate action for him and nothing official for Sal
However part of my viewpoint also takes note of his young age, no wife/girlfriend and he didn’t change her grades
FaerwenOfValenwood
Um.
MrSmith
I’m not saying he didn’t mess up (he did) and I’m not saying he didn’t deserve to be fired (he did)
Spencer
Ethically, I don’t care that two adults boned. Professionally, it is a major component of Jason’s job that he not fuck students and even if a student rips her shirt off and jumps on top of him, it is Jason’s actual job to remove himself from the situation.
MrSmith
Of course it is and he should have and didn’t and paid the price.
However it’s easy to say what you should do (as Tyson said “everybody has a plan until you’re punched in the face) buy it’s a different story when it’s not hypothetical, that it’s a different story when it’s right there in front of you in the flesh
Jason was weak and paid the price whereas Sal got away with it scot free
Spencer
Sal got away with it scott free because she has no legal or professional responsibility.
Like, I dunno how to tell you this, man, but even when they’re in the same age group (which is why this is something that doesn’t bug me on a moral standpoint), a teacher has 100% of the responsibility not to fuck their student. If they’re weak enough in that exact second, then they don’t get to be a teacher anymore and the student doesn’t need to be responsible for anything legally because of all the people in the world a teacher can’t fuck, it’s their student.
thejeff
I can see the argument that the student bears some responsibility for attempting a sex for grades deal. Just making a pass because you’re attracted is fine, but attempted bribery is still a problem.
MrSmith
Incorrect. Sal wanted her grades changed and, in her mind, was offering Jason sex to make this happen.
So yes Sal bears some responsibility for this situation because she made the offer because (and I’ll admit I’m only assuming here) the university probably has rules around cheating and sex for grades etc etc
Spencer
How do you write “incorrect” and “I’ll admit I’m only assuming here” like that in the same post.
Sal acted unethically (also in the heat of the moment because she was bored, Jason’s a bad teacher, she hadn’t done it in a while, and she’s constantly being told her efforts mean nothing and the only thing that matters is the end result), except the issue ain’t the ethics, the issue is that a TA fucked a student. Ethically it was two idiots doing something rash where one of them had a professional responsibility to say no despite his eagerness and did not.
Like if this whole conversation is about whether Jason took advantage of Sal; professionally yes, he was someone responsible for her grades who had sex with someone who did so with the assumption that Jason would change her grades for it, and if Jason is someone who can be swayed by Sal flashing her tatas then he doesn’t get to be a teacher.
That’s the boring legal talk, but the reality is that it was the early days of a character dramedy series where two of cast hadn’t grown at all yet and fucked in a circumstance they shouldn’t have fucked. I don’t even know why you’re trying to push this as such a failing on Sal’s part because yeah I guess it was, but nobody involved in or out of universe actually gives a shit and the only real problem that occurred was that, and say it with me, the TA fucked a student.
Spencer
Like, dude, these posts just kinda come off like “Jason just couldn’t help himself, why did Sal have to seduce him, she’s so responsible for this!”
MrSmith
You stated: ‘Sal got away with it scott free because she has no legal or professional responsibility’
Its incorrect because Sal offered sex for grades which, I’m assuming because I can’t be bothered going through the University of Indiana rules, is probably considered a form of bribery
Sal has some culpability in this instance
MrSmith
‘Like, dude, these posts just kinda come off like “Jason just couldn’t help himself, why did Sal have to seduce him, she’s so responsible for this!”
Again incorrect, this is what I stated:
‘(as did he)’
‘He should have resisted the big temptation and he didn’t and he got fired for it which seems an appropriate action for him and nothing official for Sal’
‘I’m not saying he didn’t mess up (he did) and I’m not saying he didn’t deserve to be fired (he did)’
‘Of course it is and he should have and didn’t and paid the price.’
However Sal has some responsibility for what happened, this was not a case of Jason telling Sal he’d increase her grades for sex.
Sal shouldn’t have offered sex for grades to Jason and Jason shouldn’t have had sex with Sal except Jason (because of Penny) lost his job and was nearly deported and nothing happened to Sal
Two things can be right at the same time and infantilizing characters helps no one
temperaryobsessor
Sal was wrong to attempt bribery. It corrodes the value of good math grades for the other students. If Jason realized it was bribery Jason would be worse to accept the bribe and even worse to not hold up his end.
I am willing to give Jason the slightest leeway because it appears he didn’t realize that Sal was trying to bribe him. But I still blame him more.
In bribery situations I tend to hold the bribe taker as more responsible for the bribery especially if the bribe taker is in a position of power relative to the briber. Yes even it the bribe is right there.
Its common sense that you don’t have sex with someone you hold a position of power over because its difficult to tell the difference between no they just wanted to have sex with me and it didn’t effect their grades and they knew it wouldn’t and so we scratched each other’s backs and I’m concerned about your performance you wouldn’t want to fail did I mention you look really sexy today.
So I do blame Jason for what happened, more than Sal. I don’t think she was right but he was worse.
Spencer
I don’t know how else to explain with actual words that nobody cares that two people boned, and the only sticking point anyone has any reason to care about is the professional standard of not fucking a student, where the standard of judgment isn’t whether a teacher was sufficiently tempted by a student it’s that the teacher did it at all and any amount of temptation needs to be rejected regardless of circumstance. Jason’s not a bad person for having sex in the heat of the moment but whether or not he’s a bad person isn’t even up for debate.
Sal did something wrong, okay, everyone has acknowledged that because it’s a comic about 19 year olds being wrong about everything all the time. Everyone here gets that Sal came onto him (with his young age and no girlfriend/wife) and nobody really cares because the ethics of doing something stupid in the heat of the moment that she didn’t benefit from in any capacity because Jason regretted it enough to stick to his standards, as if we’re acknowledging Sal did something morally wrong ergo she is not getting the result she wanted, don’t actually matter when talking about the professional standard of not fucking your student under any circumstance.
Do you get it yet? You’re trying to intermingle the topic of Jason’s professional responsibility, where fucking a student is the literal last thing he is ever supposed to do and is grounds for immediate termination, with the moral responsibility of whether it’s wrong to come onto someone for a grade boost. Of course it’s wrong, that’s why Sal didn’t get anything out of it and had to actually learn and improve at math.
temperaryobsessor
As a professional you don’t fuck your students. I you can’t hold that line even in the face of temptation you don’t get to be a teacher.
However those rules are not arbitrary we have those rules for two reasons. First because any form of bribery or possible nepotism degrades the value of grades,and secondly because when people in positions of power have sex with those they have power over it can be tough to tell the difference between fully consensual sex, consensual bribery sex and holding someones grades/job hostage. Both from the outside and from the inside these three can be tough to tell apart. The second reason is why it was 100% Jason’s responsibility despite them both being adults. It doesn’t help that he failed to be professional before hand either.
I also think pretending you don’t control whether you act on sexual desires is what leads to people asking rape victims what they were wearing that night.
BBCC
I just want to point out Jason DID know Sal wanted him to change his grades. In the preview for their slip shine on Tumblr, he responds to her ‘You said my efforts don’t matter, ah’m only being judged against my marks’ with ‘This is NOT what I meant and you know it.’ He then tells her it would be unethical. Aaaand then he kisses her.
Demoted Oblivious
As a reminder, Jason did /not/ get fired for being involved with Sal. He got fired because of a *false* accusation by his office mate, who did not know Jason was doing anything. She just threw him under the bus. When Jason faced his tribunal, he didn’t dispute it, because he knew he had fucked up, but it wasn’t Sal’s involvement that got him caught.
MrSmith
Yes true. Should Jason have fought it?
Losing a job and potentially losing the right to stay in the country is quite a punishment for Penny’s vindictiveness
Demoted Oblivious
That is a very good question and one that frankly is very complicated. Should he have got involved with Sal?. Probably not, but at the same time, the policy exists to prevent predation and abuse of power. And while certainly a complex interaction, at the end of the day neither party seems to object to what they did. So, assuming that line of thought is true, the punishment being inflicted is far out of proportion to the infraction. This is not intended to be an idictment nor a defense of Jasons and Sals behavior. If anything, I think the policy itself is overeaching in being completely inflexible. While I would argue that adults should have more patients and be willing to wait until after the semester, the fact is that many people simply don’t care, and in fact a few (on both sides) would likely see this as both a kink and a featger in their cap. And we know Sal’s age, but Jason seems also to be quite young, possibly going straight for a degree to a master’s.
MrSmith
I don’t know what Jason was thinking but I’m going with the idea that he knew he did wrong therefore the firing was justified and combine that with if he had said anything then there would have been blow back on Sal since Sal would most likely admit to trying to get her grades changed so honour demands he keep quiet and take his punishment like a man and not say anything
Rules between professors and students should definitely be kept up but I wonder if rules between TAs and students, due to the similar ages, could be changed, just not sure how though to avoid power imbalances
Spencer
It’s not really complicated.
His job told him not to fuck Sal under any circumstance.
Jason fucked Sal because it’s a character drama named after the characters being stupid all the time.
Jason was pegged as having fucked a student and couldn’t bring himself to lie about it even though the accusation was intended as a diversion without a kernel of truth because he genuinely felt guilty and remorseful that he let down the professional standards asked of him.
Jason also seems to consider those professional standards as moral standards, and consequently he moved on from teaching to take up bartending, which is fine, because as much as Jason wanted to be a good teacher he never showed any aptitude for it.
thejeff
Two Points.
1) As much as I agree Jason should have been fired for what he did, I’m appalled at the process. They didn’t investigate. He was supposed to bring the unnamed student in question if he wanted to defend himself. It simultaneously manages to be an easy way to railroad someone who’s falsely accused or with only circumstantial evidences and an easy way for the unscrupulous to pressure their victim to clear them.
2) Despite his apparent lack of aptitude, I was more interested in him potentially trying to do better than in Jason the bartender. He’s a side character though and that might have taken up more space than warranted. I wonder if Willis decided after the fact that sex with a student was something he didn’t want to downplay to the point of leaving him as a TA.
Thag Simmons
Sal kind of doesn’t like Jason. He was a shit teacher, didn’t follow through with his end of their bargain and is generally kind of a snobby prick.
She also didn’t fail, she found a better tutor in Wonderbread and managed to turn her grades around. Another point against Jason, she was capable of grasping the material, he was just a bad tutor
Sirksome
I also feel I should mention that Jason profiled Sal pretty hard when they first met and I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume it didn’t have a racist undercurrent to it. Maybe you could argue Sal didn’t make a great first impression but it was still pretty fucked up and I don’t blame Sal if she holds a grudge against him for that.
Thag Simmons
Jason grew up in an old money english family. There was probably a racial element
Demoted Oblivious
Classist. I’m not saying there isn’t a racist element too, but my read on old english money is that they’re even more classist than they are racist.
Mr D
And that, in and of itself, is a classist sentiment.
(Mind you, punching up and all that)
Demoted Oblivious
Yes and no. Unlike downwards classism and racism which have been repeatedly disproven, and yet continue to be used as an excuse to oppress, the haves have nearly always and do almost universally continue to oppress the have nots. I am absolutely unashamed of making that claim. If the wealthy don’t want to be judged for being selfish greedy assholes, all they have to do is prove they aren’t. It’s not like my claim is something that can’t be disputed or disproved. So to any wealthy people who object to my calling them out as described, prove me a bigot instead of a person with a valid critisism of a disproptionate distribution of wealth and those who hold it. Go on. I’ll wait, but I won’t hold my breath.
Thag Simmons
The British empire spent a very long time forcing a correlation between those two things.
Demoted Oblivious
Yup, and while recent popular attitudes in the UK are definitely a return to that, there was a time at least that they abolished slavery, and celebrated and toasted black american troops for their help in the war. It’s a bloody mixed bag alright.
thejeff
While continuing to oppress non-white populations in their colonial possessions (until they broke free) and treat immigrants from those countries as second class citizens at home.
It’s a mixed bag, as it always is. They’re not as awful as the US in many ways, but they’ve definitely got their own problems and have all along.
DailyBrad
I don’t know that it’d have had any racial element, but literally the very first time they talked, he hit on her, so I don’t think that got them off on the right foot, Sal saying she didn’t come there to be “hormoned on by Pee-Wee Herman”, I think it was.
Demoted Oblivious
Yeshe saw her and declined to change office hours because of “ethics”, which was (more than) enough for Sal to not want to be hormoned on, as you so capably recalled. How do y’all remember this shit a decade later? (oh wait, collective concious, and the neuron that fires makes it’s owner post. Still, bloody impressive)
Cmasta1992
Not that it will matter but I acknowledge I was wrong about the number of sexual encounters and final grade.
But this leads me to be even more confused about Sal’s jealousy
BBCC
Sal doesn’t really like Jason very much – she thinks he’s an asshole – but he’s an asshole she’s attracted to and she’s more than a little lonely in that department of late so seeing him annoys her. Doubly so since he’s here with someone else.
Meagan
This makes more sense than anything else I’ve seen. She is attracted to him, maybe against her better judgment, so she’s gonna be awkward around him.
BBCC
Yeah, being attracted to someone you think is an asshole is rough, especially when you’re lonely and he shows up with someone else.
Steelbright
in my experience it’s also possible to be annoyed that someone you’d want to bone casually/non-romantically doesn’t want to bone you at all anymore, or someone that you know things wouldn’t work out romantically with has found somebody that it looks like they WILL work out with… yep, it doesn’t always make sense or follow rules. feelings be like that.
Spencer
Yeah that’s a good angle. Sal’s looking at Ruth and thinking “I don’t compare to that?” even though it’s not a competition and even if it were, Jason wouldn’t even know it.
Thag Simmons