Former students of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas shooter are speaking out about their disturbing experiences while studying with him at another university, with one claiming he made sexual comments about their clothing while in class.
Kristin Marshburn, 28, said that while she was a student at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, in the fall of 2016, Anthony Polito made a strange comment while sitting in the front row of her business class.
“He told me that if I wore a shirt that low-cut for the rest of the semester, I’d probably get an A,” Marshburn told NBC News on Tuesday.
“I remember their faces just being shocked.”
The former student said her “bold comment” surprised her since the class was small and primarily made up of men.
Kristin Marshburn was a former student of UNLV shooter Anthony Polito while she taught at East Carolina University. Kristin Lea Marshburn/Facebook
“They seemed sad for me,” he said of the other students in Polito’s supply chain management course.
Upset by her professor’s sleazy comment, Marshburn immediately reported the incident to the dean of the business school.
Polito never returned to class after she reported him, Marshburn shared.
In January 2017, Polito resigned from his position as a tenured associate professor at ECU after working at the school since 2001, the university told NBC News.
Marshburn shared that Polito never returned to class after she reported him. Kristin Lea Marshburn/Facebook
It is unclear whether Polito left the position because of his comments toward Marshburn, who was a junior at the time.
Marshburn praised ECU for how they handled his complaint against Polito.
“East Carolina did an incredible job of making me feel safe, heard and believed,” she told the outlet.
Polito taught as a professor at ECU from 2001 to early 2017. Facebook/East Carolina University
Marshburn decided to come forward with her account of her former teacher’s inappropriate comments so that other women know to speak up if they feel mistreated by a person in a position of power.
“It is not okay for our teachers, or anyone, to make sexual comments, or about anything we wear or our appearance,” Marshburn said.
Marshburn is the second woman to claim that Polito, who attacked and killed three UNLV faculty members on Dec. 6, made them feel uncomfortable when they were students.
Anthony Polito, 67, is the gunman who had applied for a university professorship at UNLV before starting a targeted shooting. Antonio Polito / Linkedin
On Thursday, a second woman revealed that he made unwanted contact with her via email and text messages for almost an entire semester and that he would buy her gifts in his attempt to pursue her.
“I felt attacked,” a former Polito student, who asked to remain anonymous, told NBC News on Thursday.
The 32-year-old from Durham, North Carolina, said she once saw Polito as a mentor until he invited her to Las Vegas during her senior year in 2012.
Law enforcement officers head to the UNLV campus after reports of an active shooter in Las Vegas, Nevada, December 6, 2023. via REUTERS
“I think that’s when I thought, ‘I have to interrupt this man because he got the wrong idea,'” the woman told the outlet.
“It was so strange.”
The former student never reported the professor to any school officials because he was a well-respected member of the campus facility.
Police officers stand watch near the scene outside Frank and Estella Beam Hall, home to UNLV’s Lee School of Business, the morning after a shooting that left three people dead at the University of Nevada. fake images
Another former student of Polito described him as an eccentric but well-liked teacher while studying with him.
Josh Bryant, 32, who took two of Polito’s supply chain management classes in 2011, said he wore fancy suspenders and cufflinks in class and often smoked Virginia Slims cigarettes.
Bryant shared that he frequently spoke with his former teacher after class and enjoyed their dialogue, but he viewed Polito as a narcissist obsessed with being idolized for his intellectual abilities.
“He was absorbed in his own aura,” Bryant told the outlet.
The gun used by Polito in the UNLV campus shooting. AP
“I could see how his need and desire to be smarter than his peers could quickly become an unstable situation.”
On Polito’s personal website, the professor-turned-mass shooter labeled himself “Dr. 160IQ” and boasted membership in Mensa, a high-IQ society that requires aspiring members to first score in the top 2% on a standardized test before being accepted, according to NBC News.
A Mensa spokesperson told the outlet that Polito joined in 1980, but his membership expired this year after he failed to pay his dues.
Following the shooting at UNLV last Wednesday, police shared that Politio, 67, was in the midst of financial difficulties when he carried out the attack.
“We know that he applied numerous times for a job at various higher education institutions in Nevada and was denied each time,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said during a news conference Thursday.
“We also know that the suspect was having financial difficulties, as demonstrated when we served a search warrant at his apartment. “There was an eviction notice taped to the front door.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn