Professor Fired For Re-enacting VTech Shootings To Prove Armed Professors Or Students Could Have Stopped It

This is a free speech issue, of course, and it goes to the heart of the spirit of unshackled and sometimes unpopluar inquiry that is supposedly at the heart of the our academic system.

Nevertheless, considering how raw the feelings still are at VTech, I can understand VTech firing one of its professors for reenacting the shootings on the school grounds, so soon after the actual murders.

What? Huh? This professor didn't teach at VTech, but rather Emmanuel College in not-quite-neighboring Boston?

Ah. Well that changes things a bit.

A reenactment of the Virginia Tech massacre has caused some serious problems at a Boston school. According to a local paper, an Emmanuel College adjunct professor was fired after replaying the incident to prove his pro-gun view.

According to the college, the incident, which happened on Wednesday, left many people upset. "An adjunct faculty member made statements regarding the shootings at Virginia Tech University which prompted students and parents to contact the administration with complaints."

...

Winset tells the paper the college's decision to fire him was pathetic and will affect the discussion of controversial issues at schools. Emmanuel College argues that "the well-being of our student body is a primary concern, and the action taken, which was to dismiss the adjunct faculty member, reflects this belief."

I see... the spirit of free academic inquiry is stronger than ever, except if the inquiry opposes the dominant quasi-clerical orthodoxy, and except if it "upsets" some people.

Thanks to dri.

posted by Ace at 05:54 PM

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