Professor arrested over laptop confrontation with student

The Wired Campus Blog reports that A college professor at Valdosta State University teaching a class on Law and the Ethics of Media has been charged with battery after a student told police the prof shut her laptop on her hands.  According to the Valdosta State newspaper, the Spectator, Asst. Prof. Frank Rybicki, who was teaching a class on The Law and Ethics of Media in the Mass Media department, closed a laptop on the hands of student Dorsena Drakeford because he thought she was looking at non-class-related websites. The student argued with Prof. Rybicki about closing her laptop and about the websites she looked at while in class; the professor became upset and dismissed class early. The student went to the Valdosta State University Police Department and reported an assault.
The Spectator report said that many students in the Mass Media department are concerned about the status of Prof. Rybicki's classes and about losing the professor, who is, according to one student interviewed "one of the best teachers in the mass media (department)."