After the Colorado movie theatre shootings this summer, people have become a little weary about going to the movie theatre. And for good reasoning. Thinking that a joke about the shootings would bring laughter to his students, professor Gregory F. Sullivan did the exact opposite. Instead, his insensitive joke opened a healing wound for one of his students who actually lost his father back on July 20th when James Holmes opened fire. Read more below.
A United States Merchant Marine Academy professor who was facing termination for an offensive joke about the Colorado movie theater shootings has been given a 45-day suspension instead, along with a requirement for five hours of sensitivity training.
The professor, Gregory F. Sullivan, was showing a film in class this summer when he said, “If someone with orange hair appears in the corner of the room, run for the exit” — a reference to the man who is accused of opening fire at a theater in Aurora, Colo., just days before. The father of one of the students in that class was among the 12 killed in the shooting, and the student left the room upset, according to an internal personnel document.
Professor Sullivan said he was unaware of the student’s connection to the shooting, but the document indicated that he should have been aware, given an e-mail that the school sent out on the subject and the absence from class of students who attended the funeral.
The academic dean had proposed firing Professor Sullivan for violating the school’s prohibition against “notoriously disgraceful conduct.”
The decision to suspend the professor instead “was made after careful review of all information collected as part of the process required under the federal policy governing academy faculty and staff,” the academy said this week in a statement.
“The academy’s first priority is the well-being of its students,” the statement continued, “and it will continue to work with the entire campus community to ensure its ability to train and educate the nation’s future merchant mariners.”
Located near Great Neck in Kings Point, N.Y., the school is one of the nation’s five federal service academies and it trains officers for the commercial shipping industry. Unlike the other four, it is administered by the Transportation Department, not by the military.
Professor Sullivan, a tenured member of the humanities department, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. He offered an immediate apology to the bereaved student, the internal document said, and that student’s family has since said it did not think that a “single distasteful remark” should be grounds for dismissal.
