Offensive?

[slacker]

Irregular News for 04.24.07

 

Boston, MA -- An adjunct professor was fired after leading a classroom discussion about the Virginia Tech shootings in which he pointed a marker at some students and said "pow."

 

The five-minute demonstration at Emmanuel College on Wednesday, two days after a student killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus, included a discussion of gun control, whether to respond to violence with violence, and the public's "celebration of victimhood," said the professor, Nicholas Winset.

 

During the demonstration, Winset pretended to shoot some students. Then one student pretended to shoot Winset to illustrate his point that the gunman might have been stopped had another student or faculty member been armed.

 

"A classroom is supposed to be a place for academic exploration," Winset, who taught financial accounting, told the Boston Herald.

 

He said administrators had asked the faculty to engage students on the issue. But on Friday, he got a letter saying he was fired and ordering him to stay off campus.

 

Winset, 37, argued that the Catholic liberal arts school was stifling free discussion by firing him, and he said the move would have a "chilling effect" on open debate. He posted an 18-minute video on the online site YouTube defending his action.

 

The college issued a statement saying: "Emmanuel College has clear standards of classroom and campus conduct, and does not in any way condone the use of discriminatory or obscene language."

 

Student Junny Lee, 19, told The Boston Globe that most students didn't appear to find Winset's demonstration offensive.

 

source

[AR Husker Fan]

And in what manner, precisely, was that either discriminatory or obscene???

[BIGREDIOWAN]

[cmb23]

This country is getting so freakin' overly PC that it is ridiculous.

[GSG]

F*cking ridiculous! Would they have fired him if he was illustrating an epic battle from a war or the events of an infamous assassination?

[Jarred04]

Pow...

I had a professor get yelled at because he was responding to her email, and while talking to his mother, accidentally wrote "love, His name" as a closing. This was incidental and the girl immediately dropped the class. I know it was a little wierd, but some people are very sensitive. This is just another case. It may have been a little soon for that school considering what happened, but I don't think he needed to get canned.

[cmb23]

Of course maybe I've taken things too much to heart before. But I think I had a point....when I was at UNL I took "Nationality and Race Relations" my junior year. The class consisted of about 40 students, of many races and nationalities....few white/caucasian men or women. The instructor, a black woman, started the first day with a discussion on segregation. She made a couple of valid points....and then....

 

She says "The root of segregation, hatred and evil in the United States today is the blonde-haired, blue-eyed male". Just so happens that I was the only one in the class. My only comment was 'Interesting Viewpoint...' as I got up and walked out of the room.

 

I filed a complaint with the sociology department....nothing ever came of it.

[Drowning_in_the_Sea_of_Red]

I admit I would've probably felt a little uncomfortable sitting in that classroom...

 

Firing him is a little over the top...but still, you would think he'd have something inside his head telling him that maybe this wasnt the best way to talk about it...