I'm wondering if I handled this okay, or if there was something else I could have done.
My college semester is ending, and for one of my classes we had to turn in a paper and have a class discussion instead of a traditional final exam. During the discussion, I said that while I wouldn't normally interfere with the rules parents make for their children, there is one situation where I would consider it. If a teen came to me for help with this situation, I would strongly encourage them to see their parents' point of view and listen to what they said. However, if it was clear that the teen had made up their mind I would help them with the problem. I wouldn't feel comfortable with it, and I would feel bad about going behind the parents' backs, but I would never forgive myself if I didn't help and something terrible happened to the teen.
Shortly after the class was over, I saw my classmate, Samantha. Samantha asked if I had really meant what I had said in the discussion, and asked me to explain. She didn't sound very accusatory, so I didn't think there was any harm in it. I explained that I did mean it, and that ultimately if a teen came to me for help and put that kind of trust in me, then my duty is to keep them safe, not to keep the parents happy. I would understand that the parent would get very angry at me if they found out, but I would think that I still did the right thing for the teen.
She said that while she agreed that any adult should have the right to do what it was we were talking about, she didn't think it was right to help someone else's child do this. She started asking me questions about the ethics of it. I'm thinking, "great an intellectual debate!" and I respond back with my own opinion.
Unfortunately, it seems that the entire topic of discussion hit some kind of a nerve with her, as it became clear that she was very upset. She's saying that she can't believe I would be okay with doing something like that, how terrible it was, how she wouldn't trust me around her daughter. Simple disagreement I would have been okay with, even welcomed, as nobody had responded in any meaningful way during class. But this, I couldn't deal with. She clearly wasn't interested in having any sort of debate or discussion, she just was mad.
Wanting her to stop, I said that clearly this was a sensitive subject, and that we should probably stop talking about it. She kept going, bringing up her daughter again, so I said, "Samantha, stop it. You really need to calm down!" This might have been a little harsh, but it did get her to stop talking. Naturally, I didn't want to talk to her anymore about this and I left.
I think that she kept thinking about her own daughter possibly being in that situation someday, and just freaked out, taking it way too personally. I didn't think it would be appropriate to attempt to apologize to her, since she was the one who brought it up again in the first place, plus I never insulted her beliefs. Do you think I did okay? Is there anything else I could have done?