Gregory F. Sullivan made a very bad joke. He’d probably be the first to admit it. Now the tenured professor at the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point is watching his career go up in smoke.
Sullivan was preparing to turn out the lights in his classroom in order to show a documentary to his class when he joked: “If someone with orange hair appears in the corner of the room, run for the exit.”
He was referring to James E. Holmes who allegedly shot 12 people to death and wounded 58 others in a movie theater in Aurora, Co. The joke was particularly tasteless because the father of one of his students was killed in the shooting.
Holmes was immediately suspended with pay and the school’s academic dean has recommended that the professor be fired.
Holmes reportedly insists that he didn’t know that one of his students lost a family member in the shooting. Academy officials countered that a memo had been sent academy-wide regarding the shooting.
Holmes has been teaching at the academy for six years, has an excellent reputation and is reportedly well-liked by the students. Nevertheless Dean Shashi Kumar, wrote on Aug. 10, “I find there is no lesser sanction [than firing] to effectively address this misconduct.”
Holmes was given 10 days to contest the decision.
We don’t see why Kumar and Rear Adm. James A. Helis, the director of the academy, found it necessary to suspend Holmes without a hearing and we see even less reason to fire him.
Helis explained: “The academy’s first priority is the well-being of its students. As soon as I learned of the incident, I immediately placed the professor involved on administrative leave, and he is not teaching class at this time.”
It seems more likely that the first priority of the academy, that has had a tough two years in the press, is public perception. Holmes apologized to the offended student and it’s hard to see how his continuing to teach at the school is a threat to anyone.
Holmes made a bad joke. That’s all it was. There is no reason to believe that he intended to harm anyone. He is being sacrificed on the altar of political correctness.
Find another remedy – perhaps they could take away a few vacation days. But don’t destroy the career of a tenured professor because of a bad joke.
