Dear Dr. Laura

This is how your book, "Surviving a Shark Attack (on Land)" helped me. We had just been betrayed by someone we should have been able to trust. Shark is a good way to describe him. Betrayal is a good way to describe what he did:

Recently, my daughter had a horrible experience with one of her college professors. For an entire semester, he bullied, harassed and belittled her. It made her so nervous that she almost wanted to quit the program she was in with only one semester to go. My daughter submitted a complaint to the college. When the college asked the professor about it, the situation seemed to get worse. He made up facts and distorted partial truths like you said this type of person does. The other teachers seemed to look the other way. Maybe they were afraid of being next in the crosshairs. Not that I want to make excuses for them. Evil does persist because most people won’t stand up to it. We consulted an attorney about this professor and the school. The attorney told us that for $7500, we could sue but we would be better off putting the money toward tuition at another school. Why would we want her to still go to that college? That added more insult to injury. I’m still not sure whose side he was on. He charged me a lot for that advice. You were right that the legal and social systems seemed to lean over backward to protect this type of person. Betrayal does leave you stunned. It is overwhelming and demoralizing. I couldn’t even describe the feelings until I read your book. When you are a good person, betrayal is shocking. We purposely try not to have that type of person in our lives. Sometimes, they sneak in disguised as teachers or someone you should be able to trust. You trust that professors and colleges will have some sort of code of ethics or morals. There is no explanation for evil. The revenge for my daughter is, by transferring to another school, she will get her degree early.

C.