United States Merchant Marine Academy officials have placed one of their institution’s professors on administrative leave after he reportedly made a joke during class about last month’s movie theater shooting rampage that claimed 12 lives and wounded 58 people in Aurora, Colo.
“The academy is currently investigating the incident,” a Merchant Marine Academy spokesperson said Friday. “I really can’t discuss the details of the incident because the investigation is still ongoing.”
According to published reports, after Prof. Gregory F. Sullivan dimmed the lights in his Merchant Marine Academy classroom to show a documentary to students just 11 days after last month’s shooting, he allegedly said to students “If someone with orange hair appears in the corner of the room, run for the exit.”
The remark was made in reference to James E. Holmes, who is currently facing trial for perpetrating the Aurora Colo. shooting.
Holmes, who has been accused as the lone gunman that killed 12 people and wounded 58 more during the July 20 midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises,” dyed his hair orange before allegedly carrying out the massacre.
“On July 31 a professor made a comment about the Colorado shooting,” the Merchant Marine Academy spokesperson said. “The professor in question is on paid administrative leave.”
After Sullivan made his remark one of the midshipmen, whose father had been killed in the shooting, left the classroom “obviously upset,” according to published reports that cited internal academy documents as their source of information on the incident.
Sullivan is a tenured humanities professor, who has been employed at the Village of Kings Point-based Merchant Marine Academy since 2006.
Rear Admiral James A. Helis, who this month was installed as superintendent of the Merchant Marine Academy, issued a statement about the incident on Friday.
“The academy’s first priority is the well-being of its students,” Helis said in the statement. “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.”
“As with any investigation,” the statement continued, “we are interviewing both students and faculty, and the professor will have the opportunity to respond before we issue our final determination.”
The Merchant Marine Academy’s academic dean Shashi Kumar recommended in the internal documents that Sullivan be fired, calling the joke “notoriously disgraceful conduct” in accordance with the institution’s rules, published reports said.
The future of Sullivan’s employment at the Merchant Marine Academy is now in the hands of Helis and a “faculty personnel committee,” which has been convened on a “fact-finding inquiry,” the academy spokesperson said.
“Once that is completed, then the professor in question has 10 days to respond before a decision is made by the superintendent,” the spokesperson said.
All Merchant Marine Academy employees are subject to federal hiring and firing guidelines, the spokesperson said.
The U.S. Department of Transportation oversees the operation of the Merchant Marine Academy.
