Another example of a whacked out liberal professor.

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,504524,00.html

Professor Takes Heat for Calling Cops on Student Who Discussed Guns in Class


Wednesday, March 04, 2009
By Maxim Lott

A professor in Connecticut reported one of her students to the police after he
gave a class presentation on why students and teachers should be allowed to
carry concealed weapons on campus. Now, free speech activists say the
professors actions are what really need to be investigated.

Last October, John Wahlberg and two classmates at Central Connecticut State
University gave an oral presentation for a communications class taught by
Professor Paula Anderson. The assignment was to discuss a relevant issue in the
media, and the students presented their view that the death toll in the April
2007 Virginia Tech shooting massacre would have been lower if professors and
students had been carrying guns.

That night, police called Wahlberg, a 23-year-old senior, and asked him to come
to the station. When he arrived, they they read off a list of firearms that
were registered in his name and asked where he kept them. Guns are strictly
prohibited on the CCSU campus and residence halls, but Wahlberg says he lives
20 miles off-campus and keeps his gun collection locked up in a safe. No
further action was taken by police or administrators.

I dont think that Professor Anderson was justified in calling the CCSU police
over a clearly non-threatening matter, Wahlberg told The Recorder, the CCSU
student newspaper that first reported the story. Although the topic of
discussion may have made a few individuals uncomfortable, there was no need to
label me as a threat.

Wahlberg declined to comment further to FOXNews.com, saying he did not want
more media attention.

According to The Recorder, Anderson cited safety as her reason for calling the
police.

It is also my responsibility as a teacher to protect the well-being of our
students, and the campus community at all times, she told The Recorder. As
such, when deemed necessary because of any perceived risks, I seek guidance and
consultation from the Chair of my Department, the Dean and any relevant
University officials.

Anderson did not respond to calls from FOXNews.com. Campus police forwarded
requests to university spokesman Mark McLaughlin, who declined to comment,
citing Wahlbergs privacy.

Robert Shibley, vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in
Education (FIRE), said Anderson's actions appeared to be out of line.

If all he did was discuss reasons for allowing guns on campus, it seems a bit
much to call the police and grill him about it, Shibley said. If you go after
students for just discussing an idea, that goes against everything a university
is supposed to stand for.

Shibley said FIRE has seen many more cases of hair-trigger responses by
administrators over anything gun-related since the Virginia Tech shooting.

In 2007, Shibley noted, a student at Hamline University in Minnesota was
suspended after writing a letter to an administrator arguing that carrying
concealed weapons on campus may help prevent tragedies like the one at Virginia
Tech. The student was allowed to return only after undergoing a psychological
evaluation, he said.

Shibley also cited an incident at Colorado College last year in which campus
administrators denounced a flyer as "threatening and demeaning
content" because
it mentioned guns. He said the students who produced the flyer were found
guilty of violating the schools violence policy, which was added to their
school records.

It is, of course, important that administrators identify real threats to
students, Shibley said. But they need to use logic to discern whether a threat
is real.

But Jerold Duquette, an associate professor of political science at CCSU who
sits on the Faculty Senate Committee on Academic Freedom, say the Wahlberg case
is not so clear-cut.

This is a situation where both sides can come up with a reasonable explanation,
Duquette said.

[Wahlberg] certainly has a reason to complain, since he didnt do anything
directly threatening. But I wouldnt say the administration has a reason to
sanction or punish the professor or the police.... I dont know if I would have
done anything differently in the situation.

Katie Kasprzak, a spokeswoman for the group Students for Concealed Carry on
Campus, suggested that the professor called the police because she disagreed
with Wahlbergs political views.

"Critics of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus argue that colleges and
universities are dedicated to the free flow of ideas, she said. Yet when a
student gives a class presentation on a relevant issue in the media, it is
acceptable to label the student as a threat? The only threat posed was a threat
to the professors personal beliefs.

Duquette said there was no evidence to support that.

I think a lot of people see this as a liberal professor going after a student
because he likes guns. I dont know if thats the case, Duquette said, adding
that more would need to be known about the incident.

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