Earlier this week, we told you about the case of Phillip Garber (seen in the video above), the precocious 16 year-old college student whose professor asked him not to speak in class because of his stuttering problem. Wholly predictable outrage ensued! Now, the professor is defending herself. Let's listen!

The professor, Elizabeth Snyder, tells the NYT that she's "gotten the most hateful, vile, vicious e-mails." Not from our readers, I hope! More to the point, she says that Phillip misinterpreted their conversation. And that he was kind of annoying!

"He misinterpreted this and assumed it had something to do with his stuttering; I interpreted his hand up for 75 minutes as someone unfamiliar with a college lecture format and frankly a little rude," she said. "In hindsight, I should have stopped my lecture and called on Philip because he had become so fixated on making a statement that it didn't seem to matter to him that he was interrupting my presentation."

A precocious 16 year-old who's rude and annoying? It doesn't add up.

[NYT]