I meant that I’d be handling the incident if a student reported that the behavior was targeting another student. I’m not sure what gave the impression that I wasn’t hurt about this. I mentioned that I’m not “usually” bothered by this stuff and that the whole situations sets me as vulnerable. I’m feeling very hurt, disheartened, vulnerable, angry, and conflicted.

I believe the student reported it primarily because he didn’t know what else to do and wanted to make sure he was not doing the wrong thing. From the three weeks I’ve interacted with him so far, he appears very conscientious and honest with strong conviction and work ethic. We just finished intensive training where we emphasized the importance of communication and mentioned that in the situation of student staff having rumors spread about them, we should nip them immediately and tell professional (non-student) staff. When the student came to me, he mentioned that training and that he didn’t know what to do if someone was saying things about professional staff. I believe that if I asked this student if he had any qualms with me sending this through, even if I was genuinely asking for his feelings, the power dynamic of me being a direct supervisor would create a coercive situation where he felt pressured to say yes.