You see, I am a teacher, and I have also taught undergrad classes at the university where I got my Master's. I have been in situations where men or boys decide they have an interest in me, and even if they are rather caddish about expressing it, I don't believe in hurting them professionally or academically over it unless it is necessary. In other words, if they got to where they were stalking or harassing, I'd take it higher, but being an adult means you handle things yourself if you can.
This guy was an idiot, but he deserved a chance to simply be told "No." All she did was make the situation worse, bigger, and more public because without even a warning, she took it to the next level. Women like that reinforce the notion that women just don't have the internal fortitude to handle the workplace, that their delicate feminine sensibilities require that their emotions be placed forefront at all times, and in all places. It makes me understand why men 100 years ago didn't want women working at all: it was enough to have someone having the vapors every time you opened your mouth at home; men didn't want to have to follow parlor-room rules all day too.
Now they can't even escape the specter of Feminine Sensibilities in the military. There is literally no where a man can go anymore without some woman there with her arms crossed, tapping her foot because she's offended. I'm surprised more men haven't simply headed off into the woods and never come back.
Perfect Lady, since you are a former college instructor who has had similar issues in the past, I'll give you credit for having actually dealt with obnoxious idiots like this guy. My attitude toward this sorry excuse for a human being is considerably less charitable than yours, but you've actually dealt with “hot for teacher” situations, and apparently you have more patience than I do.
I hope we can all concur on three things:
1) what this man did was wrong,
2) the teacher opened a door by not specifically telling her students that sexually provocative essays about herself could not be written, and
3) this adult married student should have not have walked through that door, even if the teacher left it open.
Where we seem to disagree is whether the teacher could reasonably have anticipated that an open-ended assignment would result in a sex-charged essay by a student toward the teacher.
I guess I need to continue to remind myself that common sense is no longer so common. There are some really creepy people out there, and I guess that means now we need to specifically rule things out as college essay topics which not long ago people would not have considered to be proper subjects for discussion outside their bedrooms with their wives.