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Widener Professor Could Lose Job for Hypothetical Talk of Dean’s Shooting

February 14, 2011, 12:39 pm

A tenured professor at the Widener University School of Law has been placed on administrative leave and is fighting to keep his job after students complained about his frequent hypothetical references in class to the school’s dean being shot, according to the News Journal of Wilmington, Del. The newspaper reported today that the students had complained about the professor, Lawrence Connell, partly because they regarded his hypothetical discussions of the shooting of Dean Linda L. Ammons, a black woman, as violent, racist, and sexist. Administrators there have responded by accusing the professor of a pattern of inappropriate speech and behavior. Mr. Connell’s lawyer says his client refused an offer by administrators to let him back on the campus if he recanted the statements that had offended students and underwent psychiatric evaluation. The lawyer accused Ms. Ammons of going after Mr. Connell because of his conservative views. The newspaper says administrators at Widener declined to comment.

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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_2VBOURSIAFHFMV5B7J4JPQ6TKE Steve

    Where better to learn that freedom of speech is not truly free than law school!

  • oldcommprof

    Steve, free speech is as free as ever from state action; from private action, not so much. Stupidity, however, always carries consequences of some kind.

  • 22228715

    Interesting to compare and contrast this snippet with the other Chronicle article appearing today, in which a Virginia Tech faculty member wrote about the Arizona and VT shootings, and advocated for “mandatory” psychiatric evaluations whether the person of concern returns to campus or not.

  • mtboots

    It seems to me that a tenured professor at a law school would have enough sense to refer to the hypothetical shooting victim as Jane Doe instead of one of his colleagues. I think he needs his head examined…literally.

  • kryon77

    I’ve been to law school (nothing to really brag about), and it was unremarkable for professors to refer to other professors in hypotheticals, including on final exams; I rememebr one instance in which my Torts professor subjected another professor – a friend of his – to several grievous injuries in the Final (I forget exactly why; it might have been to test our knowledge of the “substantial factor” standard when there are multiple causes of injury or death.) It’s a technique for breaking up boredom, or in the case of an exam, breaking up tension. Others can chime in with their experiences, but I don’t think the culture of my law school was unique.

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