Philadelphia law school professor, Lisa McElroy, said that she was "mortified" when she accidentally sent links to pornographic material to her students. As quickly as the link was sent out, her dignity also began to crumble.

McElroy said that it was a mistake, pure and simple, and the fact that news agencies picked up on the story was a trivial pursuit that she finds is often associated with "tabloid journalists." However, that did not change the fact that her dignity was chipping away.

Like Us on Facebook

In an opinion piece for the Washington Post, McElroy began conveying her experience in the matter.

In the beginning, she recounts how she sat her daughters down to talk to them. Instantly, the daughters thought that their mother had some terminal disease.

While she was healthy, she did have the prospect of worldwide humiliation looming over the horizon, which is what she explained to her kids.

When she had learned about what she had done, she was mortified.

She says that as a law professor, she cares deeply about her students and their educational experience. She also cares about the school she teaches at, being a role model for her daughters, and more than anything, about her dignity.

Students began to spread the word on social media, which blew the issue up even more. They asked whether she watched a lot of porn or even used sex toys. People began to call for her job and her law licence.

In her piece though, she brought forward key questions about dignity.

The whole debacle left McElroy's own dignity in shambles, but she asks, what about the dignity of those who forwarded the unintended posts and those of the students who still watched the link long enough to know what it was.

What of the dignity of the journalists who picked up the story and interviewed her students?

The experience has left McElroy with a clearer concept of dignity.

"Is it, I wonder, the degraded person who lacks dignity? Or the person who seeks to degrade her?" McElroy asks. "If a person is portrayed as less than dignified, does that mean she is? Who has the power to decide?"

She adds though that there are worse things than being humiliated like, "the willingness - even the desire - to bring others down to lift yourself up."

A spokeswoman for the university says that Drexel has looked into the matter and has cleared any trouble up with Lisa McElroy, allowing her to continue the academic and research responsibilities.

TagsLisa McElroy, Porn link, law students, professor