Opaque Lucidity

Responsible Blogging

Michael Gee has been fired from his part-time teaching job at Boston University for a comment he made about one of his students on his blog. I didn’t read the entire post, but the link above provided this quote:

''Of my six students, one (the smartest, wouldn't you know it?) is incredibly hot. . . . It was all I could do to remember the other five students.''

I have to admit that this comment made me draw a mental image of Gee, and you know the type: The Butthead Sports Guy. I won’t describe him here except to say that I’ve known BSG all my life and he acts the same way at 40 as he did at 13. He probably didn’t think twice about what he said until after he got into trouble. Now he says he’s sorry and that his comments were out of line. Hooray.

I agree that Gee’s comments were out of line. But being an asshat is not necessarily a firing offense. While my first impression of Gee is not positive and I would certainly be angry if my daughter was a student of his, I think we need to look at a few things:

1. Did he mention the student by name? (I don’t think he did)

2. Did he post anonymously? (Once again, I don’t think so)

3. Did he send the post from his PC or from one at the University?

Had he mentioned the student by name or it was possible to glean her identity from the post then, yes, I believe he should’ve been fired because this could be construed as harassment. If he made the post, even anonymously, from work, then he should be fired because the University needs to show that they addressed the problem in case a lawsuit shows up later.

But if Gee did not mention the student by name and made the post from home, then I believe that he should be allowed to keep his job. I’m not saying that he has good taste, but I have trouble seeing how this would damage anyone. Also, keep in mind that the woman in question is of college age.

I’m curious to see how you feel about this. To be clear, I do not have a daughter; if I did, I might feel differently.