<p>This is an obvious conspiracy on the part of the Professor and the institution to violate the student’s civil right of free speech by useing intimidation through the campus police department.</p>
<p>There should be lawsuits filed and the Professor should be dismissed.</p>
<p>Political Correctness has come to mean using the power of the institution to force students to adopt “correct” viewpoints.</p>
<p>I’d like to hear the professor’s side of the story, too. I’m wondering if there was any indication in the presentation that the students were illegally concealing weapons while on campus. After the slaughter at Va. Tech 2 years ago, my belief is that professors and schools are erring on the side of caution when it comes to any classwork that could indicate that students may have weapons or be considering violence.</p>
<p>If my students conveyed that to me, I’d report it to the campus police as well. Post-VA Tech, what else can a professor do? Ignore what their students are saying? That is simply not an option.</p>
<p>The student who was questioned said this,
</p>
<p>No, it was not a “nonthreatening” matter. The teacher did the appropriate thing and then so did the campus police. End of story.</p>
<p>I don’t know this professor or any current students at CCSU. So I have no first hand information. But I do have some background information that may be pertinent. Connecticut cities have a major problem with inner city youths shooting other youths. CCSU is located in one of those troubled cities (though not the most troubled certainly). In that sense, discussions of “concealed carry” are about as amusing as discussing liquid explosives while passing through airport security. The complaint may or may not have been justified. But I don’t think the student should have been keel-hauled for his choice of topic, which may have been the case here.</p>
<p>BTW, Connecticut’s inner city shootings are virtually NEVER done with registered weapons.</p>
<p>Northstarmom of course I agree it’s a good idea to hear both sides of the story. And sometimes erring on the side of caution is a good thing - I do it several times a day. But when it comes to someone else’s civil rights it becomes a bit trickier. What if someone is nervous about African American males and sees one of them walking on campus at night?</p>
<p>Calling the police because a black man is walking down the street is not even close to the same thing. Nor is calling the police because a student wants to legalize pot. </p>
<p>This person made a presentation about guns. Some of the students were left feeling “scared and uncomfortable” and shared that with the professor.</p>
<p>For those of you think this was such a violation of this student’s rights, what would you have done if you were the professor?</p>
<p>I agree with the story linked by the OP and with others that it’s really hard to judge whether this was appropriate or inappropriate without knowing a lot more about the presentation and the reactions of other students to it. A few key facts either way, and this could be a completely appropriate post-Virginia Tech response or a horrible attempt to intimidate a student based on his political beliefs. Or something in between, too.</p>
<p>One thing that matters to me a little: The police did not call the student in for questioning based only on the professor’s report. They didn’t call him in until the had learned that he was the registered owner of multiple firearms. The story doesn’t say whether that was two or ten, although the context suggests more than a couple. It also doesn’t say whether they were all hunting rifles (not very concealable) or Saturday night special pistols. Again, there’s lots of judgment here based on facts we don’t have.</p>
<p>What the professor should have done is very simple. He should have expounded on the topic and the presentation in class. He should have taken the con side and made it a debate. Allow the student to clarify his position on the topic in front of the class. Allow the rest of the class confront their misguided fears. Yes, misguided; because there was no direct threat made by the student. This IS a university and a place of learning. What did students learn in this situation? That we have freedom of speech unless your teacher or classmates don’t agree or like it. Very typical. So many people talk about free speech. That’s great; but freedom of speech isn’t worth a crap if just because you don’t like it, it can be curbed. How about all our brave men and women in uniform who have sworn to protect and defend the constitution of the United States; namely free speech; just so people exercising that freedom can call them killers, murderers, nazi’s, baby killers, etc. That is what free speech is. Defending a person’s right to say something even though you disagree with it with every bone in your body. You can’t just defend it when you agree with it. There was no threat here. Especially when it was a “GROUP PROJECT”.</p>
<p>How can anyone read this article and not think back to how uncomfortable the VA Tech student had made the women in his class, and some of his woman professors, feel? </p>
<p>Nor was this student’s freedom of speech infriged on. He spoke, student spoke to their professor, she took the required action, he was questioned and released. If you honestly believe that defending free speech requires silencing those disturbed by that speech, you do not understand the concept. </p>
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<p>No one is saying the student made a direct threat. The students said they felt scared and uncomfortable. You have no way of knowing if that was misguided or not. Nor should the burden be a “direct threat.” And the idea that people who feel scared should be made to take it up with the person they fear is absurd. </p>
<p>When my cousin had her fears dismissed by her department in grad school, the only thing that kept her from being hurt in the end was a fluke of timing in her neighbors early arrival home from work. Then we found out this student was on his third grad school. Guess what he’d done at the other two schools? Direct threats? No. He didn’t need to use them and so was able to skate by.</p>
<p>afadad: Do you know that he made no direct threat? Maybe the other members of the group weren’t investigated, because they didn’t say the same things he did. I’m not saying that the situation is definitely not as you imagine, because it may be. But I think it’s more likely that it’s not as you imagine. Neither of us knows enough to do more than speculate.</p>
<p>I would suspect that there was more to this professor’s worry than the expression of opinion by the student in his presentation. My bet is the decision to call authorities had little to do with free speech or political correctness (which of course would be to NOT call the police, since it is politically correct to stand for free speech) I doubt this decision was made lightly.</p>
<p>I wonder what he could have said that would justify the police being introduced to the situation. Having an opinion isn’t that others disagree with isn’t threatening, although I suppose that depending on what exactly it was he said people could get uncomfortable. I’d love to see a transcript of what he said, or even better, a video.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the gun case, but here’s another example of “free speech” in the classroom. I disagree with the student’s viewpoint, but surely he is allowed to express his opinion in a college classroom?</p>
<p>I think they must have changed the definition of freedom of speech since I was in college. Apparently it now means that you are free to discuss your thoughts on issues as long as they are the same as the professor’s.</p>
<p>Yea; what a great educational system we have. Promote free speech; promote free thinking; encourage students to be open minded and teach them to respect other people’s differences and different opinions… That is unless of course the person’s opinion isn’t politically correct or the teacher doesn’t agree with it. Then you’re not allowed to have an opinion or you’re not allowed your freedoms. Obviously we don’t know the entire story, but teachers like this need to be thrown out. It doesn’t bother me so much that most of the professors in college and teachers in high school lean a lot more left; but they are hypocrites. Education is suppose to be an exchange of ideas and ideals. After which, the participants alter their perception one way or another. Assuming the story continues with the basic premise; this teacher is a joke.</p>
<p>I notice that the professor says “I can’t talk about it” which makes me assume there is either a current court case, a negotiated settlement, or privacy issues. Since I haven’t seen any interviews with the one student (and I notice only one student is named and only one student was questioned by campus police about the location of his guns–“registered in his name”), I am reasonably certain that privacy issues are what applies. </p>
<p>So let’s look at a simpler version of the facts.</p>
<p>Three students give a presentation in a class about concealed carry laws on a campus where regulations do not allow concealed carry. After the presentation, ONE student (not all three) is questioned by the campus police about where guns registered in his name are kept. </p>
<p>Without knowing exactly what was in the presentation, my assumption is that the student revealed he’d brought guns on campus as part of the presentation and that the professor reported that to the campus police.</p>
<p>late last semester a student was roaming around the classroom hallways–asking all sorts of strange questions. the most frequently asked questions was "when is the auditiorium full? after a fellow instructor politely answered his question, they started wondering why he was asking. the instructor did contact the police as an afterthough since they thought it was odd–although conceivably innocent–but odd.</p>
<p>i was never notified of this incident by the police. i happened to hear about it over lunch one day. i teach in that auditorium–twice a week in fact with over 150 students each time.</p>
<p>i would never judge a professor if he/she felt uncomfortable. we are around so many students and deal with very intense student issues. i think there is, as always, more to this story.</p>