Professor fired over class discussion of shootings

lumbingmi

lumbingmi

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BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- 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.

The college said Monday that the firing was not about academic freedom, but rather his "insensitivity toward the students who were murdered at Virginia Tech" and "his use of obscene and discriminatory language." Winset was "disparaging the victims as rich white kids combined with an obscene epithet. He did not do this as part of an open debate with his students," the statement said.

Student Junny Lee, 19, told The Boston Globe that most students didn't appear to find Winset's demonstration offensive
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Professor fired over class discussion of shootings - CNN.com
 
Here we go again!

This is like the 9/11 thing. After that happened, anyone with a suspicious book was put on the no-flight list. Jeez! :roll:
 
WildHunt said:
Haha gotta love those wacky Catholic schools.[/QUOT

You have strange sense of humor for SURE.... I dont think this thread is FUNNY... it is serious debate....

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SxyPorkie said:
You are goofy.... shooting and killing in schools does happens EVERYWHERE... that has nothing to do with Catholic.....


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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.
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Yes but this article was about a professor that got fired from a Catholic school.. hence my light-hearted jest.

;) Don't worry about it, honey. :)
 
im sure the professor would learn lesson do and dont shooting in class and hurt kids or college students.

i know its school policy and college also dont shooting in school and almost killed co-workers,students and lots of mores.
 
sara1981 said:
im sure the professor would learn lesson do and dont shooting in class and hurt kids or college students.

i know its school policy and college also dont shooting in school and almost killed co-workers,students and lots of mores.
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Except that teacher did not have real gun and he 'pretend' to mimc the situation. :whip:
 
sara1981 said:
im sure the professor would learn lesson do and dont shooting in class and hurt kids or college students.

i know its school policy and college also dont shooting in school and almost killed co-workers,students and lots of mores.
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There was no real gun or any real shooting. He was simply bring up a good discussion.

I think that firing him was uncalled for.
 
I think it was how he talked about the shootings, not the fact that the topic was brought up in the first place. CNN said:

he pointed a marker at some students and said "pow."

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.
 
yups

I went to catholic schools some.
I think when they encouraged instructors to engage students, I think they meant in a 'therapuetic' way. Grief counseling type discussion to help them talk it out and discuss fears, sadness, etc.
Engaging them into the actual 'what if' type discussion could have waited a few weeks till after healing period.
Not so sure about removal...maybe suspended shortly. Depends if they were specific about what they wanted.
There's probably more to the story...like previous bad taste occasions
Bad taste award:ty:
 
Yeah, maybe it was bad taste. No idea, but I gotta say it was a bit extreme to fire the professor. We don't know the whole story like what kind of professor was he, did the students like him before all this fuss happened, etc. It is hard enough to get good professors without firing them over every little thing. A suspension until the fall would have been better, but that's just my opinion.
 
lemontree said:
Yeah, maybe it was bad taste. No idea, but I gotta say it was a bit extreme to fire the professor. We don't know the whole story like what kind of professor was he, did the students like him before all this fuss happened, etc. It is hard enough to get good professors without firing them over every little thing. A suspension until the fall would have been better, but that's just my opinion.
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Yeah, I think it's too extreme. It's like another article I read about a teacher who made his children "think".

I encourage discussion and thinking in classrooms. It helps people get a better idea and improves understanding among each other.
 
I don't know whether to laugh or cry. People have lost their god damn minds. It appears to me that the root of the worlds problems are frimly grounded with religion, money, arrogance and ignorance. Allowing people to freely practice a religion seems to do far more harm than good when they take it into account to base their entire lifestyle around it. There's not going to be an end of the world, the end is NOT near. We're fucked and stuck with the conditions we create, either we can improve them with coexistence and rational thinknig or we can just dig ourselves deeper into the pit and be commited to repeat the mistakes our ancestors have made decade after decade threefold in number.

There's something people are not seeing, they're avoiding problems like they don't exist until the problem can't handle it alone it bursts out creating a massive wave of fear that washes over the nation. People today are so irrational clinging to their idols and books, being led around by venal puppets. I could go on and on and on about everything thats screwed up with the world. Every prespective, every side.

Guess what? The world never changed. It's us, it's all our fault. Too blind to see that its us killing ourselves, the true enemy is the one within. We can't save ourselves, God can't save us either :) go pray for fish to rain from the sky and die of hunger. First step? Save someone else, then they'll save someone else as well and it will continue onward. Like eh, say ever see the movie "pay it forward" somethin like that. Too bad its not that simple because we all make it so complex. I wonder, what is it we're fighting for? In general we seem to all want the same thing, the path to get there, however we have different ideals of how it should be.

I really don't know, I'm just someone who thinks too much. I don't even remember what I was rambling on about...
 
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