FIRE is on Another Stupid Case

Maricopa County, Arizona is the dateline for a really stupid case involving a college professor, George Washington's Thanksgiving Day proclamation and an effort to fire the professor for emailing it to colleagues.

Sounds pretty dumb right. Well it is but the email message the Professor Walter Kehowski sent out included not only Washington's proclamation for Thanksgiving (which by the way was sent around Thanksgiving) but also a link to Pat Buchanan's website, which in good scholarly fashion, Kehowski provided a link to. That link offended some people, as if a link had to be followed. Of course, a link in and of itself is not offensive and it takes some one who is especially thin-skinned to be offended by a link to Pat Buchanan's website.

As usual the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is on the case since Professor Kehowski is facing termination for his message. This from FIRE's website:

On November 22, 2006, tenured mathematics professor Walter Kehowski at Glendale Community College—part of the MCCCD system—sent an e-mail containing Washington’s “Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789” to all MCCCD employees using a district-wide listserv designated for “announcements.” Within weeks, five MCCCD employees filed harassment charges against Kehowski, claiming his message was “hostile” and “derogatory” because it contained a link to Buchanan’s website, where the conservative Buchanan had also posted his criticisms of immigration policies.

MCCCD’s Initial Assessment found on January 3, 2007 that Kehowski was guilty of violating MCCCD’s EEO policy and policies limiting e-mail usage to messages that “support education, research, scholarly communication, administration, and other MCCCD business.” These policies also prohibit “[m]ailings to large numbers of people that contain unwanted solicitations or information.” However, MCCCD employees commonly use the “announcements” listserv to send out unsolicited information. Recent e-mails sent over this very listserv include an advertisement for purchasing goats for orphans in Uganda, quotes about Women’s History Month, and a reminder about the health benefits of eating bananas. To FIRE’s knowledge, not one of the senders of these e-mails has been forced to cease teaching or threatened with dismissal.(Links in origianl omitted)