Drexel professor George Ciccariello-Maher was placed on administrative leave after a tweetstorm about the Las Vegas shooting.
A Drexel professor is threatening to take “all necessary legal action” after a tweetstorm against “white supremacist patriarchy” following the Las Vegas shooting got him kicked out of the classroom.
Drexel professor George Ciccariello-Maher said in an op-ed for the Washington Post that he is on “administrative leave” following a “smear campaign by conservatives aimed at academics.”
The tenured professor blames his suspension – not on the tweets – but rather on “illegal threats of violence” after Fox News and other outlets wrote stories on his tweets, in which he blamed the Las Vegas massacre on “Trumpism” and a “narrative of white victimization.”
“The safety of Drexel’s students, faculty, professional staff and police officers are of paramount concern to Drexel,” university spokesperson Niki Gianakaris said in a statement. “Due to a growing number of threats directed at Professor George Ciccariello-Maher, and increased concerns about both his safety and the safety of Drexel’s community, after careful consideration the University has decided to place Professor Ciccariello-Maher on administrative leave. We believe this is a necessary step to ensure the safety of our campus.”
Previously, the university said the tweets written by Ciccariello-Maher “do not represent the university’s views.”
The tenured professor railed against the “cowardice” of Drexel, saying they send the wrong message by “bowing to pressure from racist internet trolls.”
"As a researcher and professor of politics, these tweets were neither provocative in tone nor controversial in content,” he wrote, adding they were “more pressing now that President Trump has brought this aggrieved whiteness into daily headlines.”
READ CICCARIELLO-MAHER'S TWEETSTORM HERE
Ciccariello-Maher wrote professors, such as himself, were being targeted by a “coordinated right-wing campaign to undermine our academic freedom – one that relies on misrepresentation and sometimes outright lying, and often puts us and our students in danger.”
“I am by no means the first, and will not be the last target of this kind of smear campaign by conservatives aimed at academics,” he wrote. “In every case, it is the same right-wing media outlets leading the charge, and campuses are increasingly the target.”
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