Monday, March 12, 2018



Cincinnati professor forced out after claiming Muslim women are safer in U.S.

A University of Cincinnati professor is being forced to retire after he told a Muslim student that female Muslims are safer in the U.S. than in the Middle East.

University of Cincinnati assistant professor Clifford Adams has been placed on administrative for the remainder of the semester and will retire May 1, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

The news comes after the university investigated Mr. Adams in the fall for comments he made on a female student’s paper that another student had posted on Facebook.

“Muslim females are safer in America than in any Middle Eastern country. How dare you complain while enjoying our protection!” Mr. Adams reportedly wrote.

“The U.S. President’s first sworn duty is to protect America from enemies, and the greatest threat to our freedom is not the President, it is radical Islam. Review this list of Islamic terrorist attacks and then tell me about your hurt feelings,” he wrote in another comment.

Mr. Adams later apologized for his remarks in a letter to The Enquirer.

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Student barred from class for claiming there are two genders

A student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania was recently barred from attending a religious studies class that he needs in order to graduate after he questioned his instructor's claims regarding the "reality of white male privilege."
Lake Ingle said he objected to some of the claims made in a video featuring a transgender woman, and countered by arguing that there are only two genders and that the "gender wage gap" is a myth.

A student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania has been barred from attending a religious studies class required for graduation after pointing out that there are only two genders.

“Later this week I will be defending myself and my FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS in front of the Academic Integrity Board (AIB) of the Indiana Univ. of Pennsylvania (IUP) against allegations of Classroom Conduct violations,” Lake Ingle stated in a Facebook post, which was deleted after Ingle retained legal representation.

"I am fighting to make my voice heard. Not only my voice, but the voices of others that oppose popular university opinion."    Tweet This

“The decision made by the AIB that day will determine whether I will be able to continue participating in my full course load, as well as graduate this May as scheduled,” Ingle continued, adding, “This is not transgender, woman’s rights, or wage issue. This is about free speech and the constant misuse of intellectual power in universities.”

According to Ingle, the class was forced to watch a Ted-Talk on February 28 featuring Paula Stone, a transgender woman, who gave examples of “mansplaining,” “male privilege,” and systematic sexism. Following the video, Ingle wrote that the instructor “opened the floor to WOMEN ONLY. Barring men from speaking until the women in the class have had their chance to speak.”

After some time had elapsed, Ingle stated he “took this opportunity to point out the official view of biologists who claim there are only two biological genders,” and refuted the “gender wage gap,” after which class resumed as normal.

“The floor was opened, and not a single woman spoke. Thirty seconds or so passed and still no woman had spoken. So, I decided it was permissible for me to enter the conversation, especially because I felt the conversation itself was completely inappropriate in its structure,” Ingle told Campus Reform. “I objected to the use of the anecdotal accounts of one woman’s experience to begin a discussion in which they were considered reality. It was during my objection that Dr. Downie attempted to silence me because I am not a woman.”

On February 29, Ingle met with his instructor, who he says gave him two documents—an Academic Integrity Referral Form and Documented Agreement. Photos of each document, along with a letter from IUP Provost Dr. Tomothy Moerland, were provided to Campus Reform.

Both the referral form and agreement charge Ingle with “Disrespectful objection to the professor’s class discussion structure; refusal to stop talking out of turn; angry outbursts in response to being required to listen to a trans speaker discuss the reality of white male privilege and sexism; disrespectful references to the validity of trans identity and experience; [and making a] disrespectful claim that a low score on any class work would be evidence of professor’s personal prejudice.”

According to the documented agreement, IUP is now attempting to force Ingle to apologize, stipulating that “Lake will write an apology to the professor which specifically addresses each of the disrespectful behaviors described above.”

Moreover, the agreement proclaims that on March 8, “Lake will begin class with an apology to the class for his behavior and then listen in silence as the professor and/or any student who wishes to speak shares how he or she felt during Lake’s disrespectful and disruptive outbursts on 2-28.”

“The Office of the Provost has received a request from [REDACTED] Instructor for RLST 481 – Special Topic – Self, Sin, and Salvation, to remove you from class due to behaviors that significantly disrupt the learning process in this class,” the letter to Ingle from Provost Moerland states. “Due to the serious nature of the issue, you are barred from attending this class in accordance with the Classroom Disruption policy.”

Although the instructor of the course is redacted, Professor Alison Downie is listed as the only instructor for that particular course on IUP’s website.

“During my time as a Religious Studies major, I have had professors insult me for opposing views, call me names such as ‘racist’ or ‘sexist’, and have had my views discredited due my race, gender, and sexual orientation,” Ingle stated in his Facebook post.

“In short - this is not the first time an instructor and I have had a disagreement over course material or that I have objected to the views being pushed on the class,” he continued. “That being said, the wording in the documents is not only exaggerated, but more than one line is entirely untruthful and is done so purposefully to discredit my views and paint me as intolerant and ignorant.”

“It is my belief that the instructor’s decision to file these sanctions is an attempt to bully me into redacting my views, making it a matter of free speech,” Ingle concluded.

Ingle told Campus Reform that he will be defending his First Amendment rights to the university’s Academic Integrity Board, which will determine whether he will be allowed to resume attending class regularly, or be forced to graduate late.

“The censorship on college campuses is an issue I have tried to take head on in many of my courses as well as offering the opposing, conservative view that many classroom discussion beg for,” he said, adding that he is fighting less for himself than for the many other conservative students who endure similar experiences.

“With regards to my conflict with the university and instructor, I am fighting to make my voice heard. Not only my voice, but the voices of others that oppose popular university opinion,” he explained. “I am not battling my professor to prove that I am right about gender wage gaps or transgenderism, I am fighting to ensure that students may disagree with their professors and if they do, must speak up.”

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To Keep Students Safe, This School Allows Teachers to Carry Guns

When Charles McMahan agreed to talk with The Daily Signal about his program enabling trained teachers and other staff to carry guns in school, the Oklahoma school superintendent knew he’d be falling on the politically incorrect end of a sensitive conversation.

But as the educator who oversees more than 500 prekindergarten through 12th-grade students in the rural town of Porter, Oklahoma—40 minutes outside Tulsa—McMahan says he stands by his decision to arm qualified teachers and staff.

“My main job as superintendent is the safety of those kids,” McMahan told The Daily Signal in a phone interview.

On a good day, law enforcement is 20 minutes away from the Porter Consolidated Schools district and its campus with multiple buildings, McMahan said. For that reason, he said, concealed carry permits for highly trained and qualified teachers and staff makes sense.

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“In 20 minutes with an active shooter, it’s done,” McMahan said. “Seconds matter. Not minutes. So having somebody on campus that’s able to do this job and do it well—that’s important to me.”

Before the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead, the concealed carry program in Porter’s schools hardly was a topic among locals.

“The community loved it, everyone understood,” McMahan said.

Post-Parkland, though, with President Donald Trump advocating the arming of some teachers and many students, teachers, and politicians speaking against it, McMahan’s phone has been ringing off the hook.

At least eight states already have programs allowing school faculty and other staff to carry concealed weapons on K-12 campuses, according to the Education Commission of the States. More states have introduced legislation to allow it, and a private, firearms training group called Faster Saves Lives says it has worked with 1,300 school staffers in 12 different states.

Concealed carry programs differ from state to state, and school district to school district. In Oklahoma, for example, lawmakers passed legislation in 2015 allowing school employees, including teachers, to carry guns on school grounds.

McMahan, 50, helped launch one of the first programs in the state at Okay Public Schools in Wagoner County, then replicated it at Porter Consolidated Schools, also in Wagoner, where he became superintendent last year.

When The Daily Signal interviewed him, McMahan said he had just finished a two-and-a-half-hour training session on a shooting range.

Porter’s school board is responsible for establishing requirements for the concealed carry program. McMahan said it’s “probably one of the most stringent” in the entire country.

For starters, the program requires that interested teachers and other school district employees take a Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory test. “They test to see if you’re crazy,” McMahan said, in non-politically correct terminology.

It also requires employees to have a valid license under the Oklahoma Self-Defense Act, and a valid license as an armed security guard or reserve peace officer, issued through Oklahoma’s Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training.

The course set up by the state agency involves qualification on a pistol range as required for all police officers in the state, including reserve officers and armed security guards. To pass, applicants must score a minimum of 72 out of a possible 100.

But for McMahan, a 72 wasn’t good enough.

“If I ever have to use this, I’m going to have a backdrop of students. And I can’t afford to hit a student,” McMahan said. “I’ve got to be able to hit the threat and put him down, and stop the killing immediately.”

In addition to his role at the Porter Consolidated Schools district, McMahan serves as a volunteer firefighter.
For that reason, McMahan said, he requires armed faculty to reach a proficiency rate of 80 percent on the field exam, eight points higher than the qualification required for Oklahoma police, sheriff, and highway patrol officers.

“To us, this is very serious. Your average police officer … when they’re out shooting, they won’t have a full backdrop of a school of students like I would,” the superintendent said. “So I feel like our requirements have to be higher.”

In the Okay school district where McMahan used to work, faculty who carry a firearm on school grounds are required to qualify three times a year. In Porter, McMahan requires participants to do the same.

In Oklahoma, law enforcement officers must qualify on firearms only once a year.

“It’s not just some fly-by-night thing that we’ve come up with, that anybody that wants to carry a concealed weapon can carry at school,” McMahan said. “We are highly trained, we’re pretty good at what we do.”

The names of those authorized to carry a firearm on school grounds are kept confidential at school and among the general public, but they are known to the school board and local law enforcement.

“We have to make sure they understand we’re not the bad guy, because we’re dressed in regular clothes,” McMahan said. “So part of our training is when somebody comes up behind you, what to do with the weapon.”

In Oklahoma, concealed carry programs on school grounds are young, and McMahan said he is always looking for ways to improve. And although he has the support of the community, the program is self-funded.

“The school’s not reimbursing me for anything when I’m on the gun range or for any of these classes—I’m using my own money and my own time to train myself to be able to protect these kids,” he said. “I just do what I can do.”

Ultimately, McMahan said, he would like to see other types of reforms to prevent and respond to active school shooters. But for now, he’s confident about what he’s doing.

“I look at every one of those kids as my own kids,” McMahan said. “I’ve got boy and girl twins at home, and I protect them with everything I’ve got at home. I’m going to protect my kids at school the same way. And if I’m empty-handed going up against an active shooter, I can’t protect them.”

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