Sociology Professor Suspended for Facebook Comments

Published: March 1, 2010

A sociology professor at East Stroudsburg University (ESU) claims she was suspended for voicing her frustration with her job on her Facebook page.

Gloria Gadsden said university officials cited two comments she had posted on her social networking page during a Feb. 24 meeting. In the first comment, posted Jan. 21, Gadsden wrote, “Does anyone know where I can find a very discrete hitman? Yes, it’s been that kind of day…” In the second posting, she wrote, “had a good day today, DIDN’T want to kill even one student grin. Now Friday was a different story,” according to The Pocono Record.

University officials referred to the recent University of Alabama-Huntsville shooting, allegedly performed by disgruntled professor Amy Bishop, when discussing their concern for Gadsden’s comments. Gadsden maintains that she has no history of violence and that she posed no threat to students or anyone at the university.

Gadsden was placed on paid leave indefinitely, The Pocono Record reports. She believes that her suspension was punishment for her publishing an essay in 2008, which discussed what she believed were the inadequate efforts to hold on to minority faculty on university campuses. The professor, who is black, said the essay, which never mentioned ESU’s name, resulted in three tense meetings with ESU’s top administrators.

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