Professor Lisa T. McElroy accidentally sent a link to a porn site to her students. She wrote about what followed in the Washington Post.

Hat tip to Paul Caron of the TaxProfBlog.

After a public shaming, reclaiming my dignity

When a Web site broke the news on April 3 that, instead of posting an Internet link to an article about writing legal briefs, I had inadvertently sent my law school students a link to a porn site, I thought I could never recover. (And if you’re hoping to find out here how that happened, among the many possibilities that have been raised by gleeful commentators, I’m sorry to tell you you’re going to be disappointed.)

Even before the story hit the Web, I was in terrible shape; when I learned a few days earlier what I had done, I was mortified.

As a law professor, I care deeply about students and their educational experience. As an employee, I care about my institution of learning. As a mother, I care about being a role model for my adolescent daughters.

Selfishly, I care about my dignity.

In part, no doubt, that is because I am a member of a profession that values dignity above all; certainly one reason I chose the field was because ethics and principles matter to me. My job is to teach students to project a dignified image — they have to, to engender client confidence — but, more than that, to possess integrity. How can I teach conduct and attitudes I do not myself seem to personify, at least to some?

At first, when I learned what had happened, I was sure I had lost my dignity forever. Unsurprisingly, some students spread word of the incident through social media and anonymous e-mails to the media. Everyone was talking about me. Everyone was speculating about whether I watched porn, or used sex toys, or liked kinky sex. Some people were calling for my job and law license.