Emmanuel professor fired after shooting re-enactment

[aikoaiko]

So much for academic freedom. Do we have any faculty, staff, or students from Emmanuel College? What do you all think? Is there anything else to the story?

Emmanuel professor fired after shooting re-enactment
http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO49829/

BOSTON -- A professor at Emmanuel College has been fired for his in-class re-enactment of the Virginia Tech shootings.

Nicholas Winset was terminated and permanently barred from the Boston campus after a lecture he gave on Wednesday showed the gunman could have been stopped if another student was carrying a gun, according to a Boston Herald report.

On the Internet web site You Tube, Winset explains how he used a magic marker as a depiction of a gun.

Winset said the re-enactment was part of a lecture on the issue of gun control. He said he wanted to teach his students that they should fight back in violent situations.

The college had no comment on the firing.

Here's the guy on youtube. Like most professors, he likes to hear himself talk ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-cBKXyRvyM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlJDyMXvsiY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02JpWpMubIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSFAZMMTb_w

[Hissyspit]

1. I guess you could argue

that the shootings could have been stopped if another student had had a flamethrower or a nuclear warhead or a crossbow, too. Would be interested to know the whole situation.

Edited to say: I doubt very much he should have been fired, not knowing any other circumstances involved other than what's in the post, and that I didn't look at the youtube videos (takes way too long for me on dial-up.)

[aikoaiko]

4. Sure, the content is arguable (i happen to think he's right), but is this what we want

...to do to college professors with contrary ideas -- especially if it was a legitimate topic for the course. He says it was on topic in lecture, but I don't know the course or the lecture topic.

[MLFerrell]

2. This is an outrage.

When one criminalizes thought, speech becomes a distinctly secondary consideration.

[AZBlue]

13. I think it would be different if it weren't in the classroom.

It sounds as if he may have been arguing the school's rule/the law against guns on campus - if that's the case, it's not a free-speech issue in the classroom. Schools do dictate (to a certain extent) what can and can't be taught.

Also, students often take what a professor tells them as correct and factual. If he'd, for example, written a op-ed piece that argued for guns on campus, I can see defending it as free speech issue than as part of a lecture in class. If he had a problem with any school rules, he should take it up with the school and not involve the students like that.

Lastly, we don't know exactly how the entire lecture went or how upsetting it may have been to students given this past week's events. That has to be taken into account as well.

[Old and In the Way]

3. My daughter goes there...I'll forward this thread to her.

If he was recommending concealed weapons on campus, I know Emmanuel would have a big issue with that.

[aikoaiko]

5. I look forward to hearing your daughter's response.

thanks.

[AZBlue]

12. It sounds like that's what it was. It would be interesting to know her reaction.

If that's what he was doing, I see their point in firing him.

[aikoaiko]

14. I happen to agree with his opinion, but even if he something even more extreme in the opposite

vain, such as making all guns illegal to possess in the US, I still would be shocked to see him fired for it.

[freeplessinseattle]

6. In high school my teacher passed a gun around class

I guess it was some special antique gun, tried to make it relevent to our history lesson. Could you imagine if he tried that now? (this was in the late '80's)

[aikoaiko]

9. Today: he would be fired and in jail. likely.

[aikoaiko]

7. FWIW: he's not listed on Ratemyprofessors.com, so he's either brand new (on probation) or

a new part-timer. At least thats my interpretation of him not being on RMP.

[Maddy McCall]

8. What a dick.

He's the kind of professor who, after one day in his class, I'd drop and take the class under someone else.

He says he doesn't think that he's God, but he's pretty sure he's always right. He seems like a self-important pompous asshole. I watched all four parts of the video...I agree with you...he likes the sound of his own voice.

[Breeze54]

10. Both my Mother and my sister graduated from Emmanuel College.

It's a Catholic college, used to be just for women, and is run by nuns.

Need I say more? He, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, was advocating

violence and was fired, because of that fact. At least that's my take on it.

Violence is frowned upon....

[aikoaiko]

15. heh, thats funny. the nuns I knew back in the day used violence liberally in schools.

But I get your point.

[Breeze54]

16. It is ironic, isn't it?? lol

They used to beat the living crap outta me!!
They called it 'discipline' back then. Yeah...right!
Point taken. I wasn't defending them. (nuns)
Just stating opinion of situation. (as I see it from experience).
I could tell you stories, believe me.
Notice I didn't graduate from that college?? ;)

[shenmue]

11. Sounds like...

an incredibly stupid thing for him to do. Not sure what the point was, and certainy low in taste.

[aikoaiko]

17. self-kick

;)

mornin'

[whoneedstickets]

18. Had I been there..

I would have asked him to re-run his little skit, but imagine that he couldn't purchase a 'magic marker' so that when he arrived in his homicidal state, I could beat him to pulp with my chair.