My breakout group were nasty to me tonight during our online zoom class. By nasty, I mean they talked over me and only to each other when I tried to participate and contribute to the small group assignment.

I exited the breakout room to the main room, told the professor and he put me with another small group who were respectful to me.

Later, I was surprised to get a no-subject email from one of the nasty breakout group classmates. Here is how her email displayed her faux apology:

- no subject line; it was just blank (reeks of someone who is passive aggressive, she clearly doesn't respect me and having to add "apology" means acknowledge her bad behavior publicly on the record; keeping it blank in her mind, means she is detached from the email's purpose and content)

-the way she addresses me casually, shortening my first name (she did this to try to diffuse my anger and probably make herself feel less guilty; as we are complete strangers)

- she starts her email by telling me I overreacted and not to take things so personally. (Nice gaslighting behavior)

-she then writes in her email to me that she knows how it is to overreact and that I was correct, the small group activity was difficult.

-she then closes her email with a smiley emoji and wishes me luck with the rest of the class.

You can ONLY IMAGINE what I really wanted to write in response to her idiotic email.

But I chose self-control.

So, I responded (with blank subject line as that's not my responsibility to take care of for her or this situation; the blank subject line of her email is symbolic of her disingenuous passive aggressive stupidity).

I wrote, very succinct and to the point "I received your email. I let our professor know via email tonight, not to pair me with you or the two other classmates in future breakout rooms. Sincerely, Motts."

I handled myself well, I think. Her weak attempt to apologize failed because of the reasons I wrote above. A genuine email apology looks like this:

To: Motts
Fr: Classmate
RE: Apology

Hi Motts,

I just wanted to apologize for my behavior in our breakout session tonight. I talked over you and ignored your input. When you left our breakout session, I spoke to the other group members about how our behavior negatively impacted our collaboration. I hope that you will consider working with me again in a future breakout session for class. I appreciate your input.

Sincerely, Immature Classmate.

I realize the above email is too high of expectations. It's what I would have written if I had miscommunicated with a classmate during a small group activity.

I handled myself well, I think with my email response. I'm not going to dwell on it after I post this. They were petty to me and at least now I know their true colors.