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?