Board claims that professor represents ‘a serious threat to student safety on campus’
A student newspaper editorial bored has suggested that a professor should be fired after his remarks on what he would do if protestors stopped his car.
“If anyone EVER tries to stop my car on a highway with negative intentions,” Pennsylvania state representative Aaron Bernstine tweeted last week, “I will not stop under any conditions.”
If anyone EVER tries to stop my car on a highway with negative intentions… I will not stop under any conditions. https://t.co/Uf62WwhIUk
— Aaron Bernstine (@AaronBernstine) September 16, 2017
Bernstine serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s school of business. Following this tweet, The Pitt News’s editorial board strongly implied that Bernstine should be dismissed from this position.
“This isn’t Bernstine’s first time threatening violence on his Twitter account, and it’s not merely a controversial opinion,” the News‘s board wrote yesterday. “Bernstine’s speech poses a serious threat to student safety on campus. And in our current political climate, which fosters frequent protests, his presence on campus could pose a danger to all.”
The News‘s editorial board claims that the university’s response to Bernstine’s tweet—in which Pitt affirmed “free speech and expression”—was “dangerous and misguided. “Pitt should not support employees’ speech that directly threatens student safety,” the board continues.
“We thoroughly believe in the benefits of free speech,” the editorial reads. “…But Bernstine’s tweets weren’t just controversial remarks. He made well-formulated threats of violence toward protesters, not just inappropriate comments about natural disasters.”
“A promise so severe and explicitly violent has absolutely no place on our campus, and our University should not tolerate it.”
Four years ago, after the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, Bernstine tweeted a similar statement, claiming that he would “def[initely] not stop [his] car” for protestors shutting down traffic.
“[I]f you live in Pennsylvania District 10 when Bernstine is up for reelection,” the News editorial board writes, “vote against him. There should be no space for these kinds of violent threats on our campus or in our government.”
MORE: When professors buck higher ed’s progressive ideology, colleges look to fire them: think tank
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