An adjunct professor at Emmanuel College was fired last week following a classroom discussion about the Virginia Tech shootings that included him pointing a marker at some students and saying "pow."

Nicholas Winset, a professor of financial accounting, said the Catholic liberal arts college was stifling free discussion about a controversial topic and the move would have a "chilling effect" on open debate.

"A classroom is supposed to be a place for academic exploration," Winset told the Boston Herald.

The five-minute demonstration last Wednesday included a discussion of gun control, whether to respond to violence with violence, and the public's "celebration of victimhood," he said.

Winset pretended to shoot some students in the class. Then one student pretended to shoot Winset to illustrate his point that Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho may have been stopped had another student or faculty member been armed.

Winset, 37, has posted an 18-minute video defending his actions on YouTube.com under the title "Fired Professor Speaks Out!"

Winset said administrators had asked faculty members to engage students on the issue. Instead, he got a letter Friday saying he was fired and ordering him to stay off campus.

Continue.

Liberty Letters Comment. Contact the President of Emmanuel College, Sister Janet Eisner, at pres@emmanuel.edu, or call her office at 617-735-9825, to express your disappointment for her misunderstanding of both the first and second amendments, and her oversensitivity to political correctness, rather than loyalty to a professor making a valid point, namely, had one or more of the students been armed, very few would have perished. Watch the professor's video defense, about prissiness, lack of due process, even lack of a courtesy discussion or contact in person by the college, crushing of free speech, etc., at youtube.com.

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