Academic Freedom And The Limits Of Free Speech
Yesterday’s News Journal featured an interesting story about a law professor at Widener University who is in some trouble about some remarks he made in the classroom.
During a spring 2010 criminal law class, Lawrence Connell shot and killed Linda Ammons — hypothetically speaking.
Connell considered the pretend notion of his murdering the Widener School of Law dean an absurd example meant to help students remember a legal principle.
But at least two students filed complaints with administrators, calling it violent, racist and sexist, according to Connell’s attorney, Thomas Neuberger.
This sounds a bit disturbing, but could it be just a misunderstanding? Apparently there was not just one incident, but multiple incidents.
[Vice Dean] Kelly identified a series of incidents suggesting an “outgoing pattern” of misconduct. Students accused Connell of “cursing and coarse behavior, “racist and sexist statements” and “violent, personal scenarios that demean and threaten your colleagues,” according to Kelly.
The comments were about Widener Law School’s Dean Linda Ammons. Ammons is African-American, and has been mentioned as a possible judge pick by the Obama administration. Ammons was used as an example at least 10 times. The details are somewhat disturbing:
In the description of the complaints provided to Connell, the unnamed students accuse him of using Ammons, a black woman, as the shooting victim in his class examples “at least 10 times,” Neuberger said. In one instance, a student alleged Connell used a hypothetical situation describing how he “blew her head off,” Neuberger said. His examples ranged from the gory to the intentionally absurd, according to Neuberger, such as when Connell asked students to imagine Ammons dealing drugs out of her office.
Connell was offered an opportunity to come back to the classroom if he apologized to the students but he refused. His defense is that there is nothing wrong with his statements and to apologize meant he is admitting racism, which he denies (the NJ details a case about racial bias in jury selection that was a significant case in Connell’s career).
The part that really raises my eyebrows is this statement from Connell’s lawyer:
“She’s too thin-skinned, and I think she wanted to get rid of a conservative professor,” Neuberger said.
This leads me to several questions:
– Did Connell and Ammons have some kind of feud going on? Why is Connell blaming Ammons when it was the students that complained?
– In the past, has Connell used colleague’s names for examples in his classroom?
– Were the examples he used specific to Ammons? In other words, was he using Ammons name when another would do?
– Have there been previous complaints about Connell from students?
What do you think? Is this protected free speech in the classroom or is there a line that a professor shouldn’t cross?
Tags: 1st amendment, Widener Law School
I’ll tell you that other crim profs teaching at widener use examples of killing real people quite frequently (one professor kills his wife multiple times a semester, but it’s usually poisoning as opposed to blowing off heads). That same professor in that class “enlisted” people in class as hit men, drunk drivers etc. Using Dean Ammons in hypos is also pretty common, a Bus Orgs prof has been using a running hypo where Ammons hires the prof to write a screenplay all semester (clearly less controversial than murder). Occaisionally fictional Dean Ammons has to deal with fictional professor being lazy and eating ice cream.
Heh – just wait until these students find out how prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys speak in real life.
I was frequently used as an example of someone who’d turn out to be a lazy, shift-less bum in public school in the late 60’s.
While that observation turned out to be true, there were OTHER examples of LAZY, SHIFTLESS BUMS in those classrooms the teachers could have pointed out.
Why was I picked on?
Was it because I WASN’T buying what THEY were selling and wasn’t afraid to tell them so?
I’m just sayin’, man.
Another white man being kept down by black women. The history of this country is FILLED with instances of white men losing opportunities because of the African American female ruling elite. Dont they know that being a conservative is a mental condition? They cant help the vile crap they spew. Their brains are under developed. Let’s hope Dean Ammons can learn tolerance….
but really, what is wrong with targeting conservatives? we’d target terrorists, or nazis. (yup, i went there).
This is a very interesting case. One the one hand, academic freedom (speech and expression) are hallmarks of American life. On the other hand, when does an individual “cross the line?” It’s difficult to determine just what a ‘baseline’ level of professionalism is. Depending on this individuals’ previous track record, I am not at liberty to say.
Generally, all institutions, corporations and other societal organizations have a written Code of Conduct which spells out specific behaviors one can and can’t do. Free speech at a corporation or learning institution isn’t always perfectly free.
I’m sure there are tens of thounsands of teachers, professors and instructors who use ‘real’ people in their explanatory scenarios while attempting to teach specific points, rules or circumstances.
At best, this professor at least seems to have acted in what many would call an ‘unprofessional’ manner. However, this professors’ actions may not rise to the level that the Widener administrators deem inapropriate. It’ll be interesting to see how the “politics” of this case turn out. Remember, If ‘other’ professors use similarly colorful examples in their teachings, the school must be consistent in their punishment (no double-standards).
Sounds like he is being singled out because he is a jerk. I assume the aspiring lawyers keep good notes.
NH, note how you havent seen this on a national news station. as a newshound, im sure you are well aware what happens to (for example) black….. any profession… if they say something that could even be edited to appear to be targeting POSSIBLY white people. the double standard is already there. This peice of white trash will be fine.
ya know… if you wanna keep to a single standard, we should be going after all the racist students who sat in his class and didnt drop it. according to the Media, that means they all agree with everything he said.
there is a serious problem with racist students at Weidner…. whos knows how many of them have infiltrated our society.
And if he had used Barack Obama as his example, would it be a case of somehow threatening the President?
One point: Widener University is a private school, which means that the First Amendment guarantee that the government shall not pass any law abridging the freedom of speech does not apply.
“And if he had used Barack Obama as his example, would it be a case of somehow threatening the President?”
no, it would be a case of a good patriotic ‘meri’can doing his patriotic duty of questioning the gumment.
I also took classes at Widener (paralegal), and instructors routinely used students in the class or Widener officials as examples. It’s too bad the students didn’t say something to the professor first — it might not have escalated to a lawsuit.
I think that putting him on leave was not a smart thing to do, not academically or in terms of personnel policy. My guess is that he was being purposely provocative and a jerk (perhaps even looking for a fight). But in many cases, profs are really just trying to get the students’ attention. It must be awfully tedious teaching to scalps (as students are bent over their cell phones or computers, texting, surfing, watching videos).
I also thought about how this would play out if he had been using Obama, or previously Bush as an example. I am curious who his examples were before Ammons became dean. But it really doesn’t matter. It’s not like sticking pins in a voodoo doll — or has she been having unexplained headaches recently…