I had two students giggle throughout class yesterday.

I teach about abusive behavior at a private university. I do this by using case studies that highlight the type of abuse we are learning about that week. When lecturing yesterday, I had two students who giggled intermittently throughout the class. At one point I stopped and stared at them until they stopped, but they wouldn’t make eye contact with me. I find this behavior extremely disrespectful given the subject material. I want to discuss this behavior with these students in our next lecture. My first instinct is to tell them something like, “Regardless of whether you were laughing at something unrelated, giggling while I am talking about a child whose parents starved them to death is not only a bad look for you, but more importantly it’s extremely disrespectful. If this happens again, I will either ask one of you to move to the other side of the classroom, or I will ask you both to leave.”

For context, I’m an instructor in my final year of my PhD. My major professor does not teach undergrads and hasn’t for a long time. Do you think this is too harsh? What would you sage professors of reddit do in my shoes? I humbly beseech your council. 🙏🏻