Perhaps you recall the saga of Francis Schmidt, the art and 3-D animation professor at Bergen County Community College who was disciplined for posting a picture of his 7-year-old daughter wearing a Game of Thrones t-shirt on his Google+ account. You see, officials at the university saw the photo and, first, questioned him as to whether it was “a threat against the dean,” and then suspended Schmidt without pay and sent him to a psychiatrist because the slogan led at least one administrator to think of “someone show[ing] up with an AK-47 here shooting everybody.” It was a little nuts then, and it remains nuts today.
Luckily, Bergen County Community College appears to have realized that, too, finally, as they have officially rescinded the punishment.
“By sanctioning you as it did, BCC may have unintentionally erred and potentially violated your civil rights, including under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” [BCC Human Resources Director Patti] Bonomolo wrote, according to a letter obtained by Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a free speech educational advocacy group representing Schmidt.
Bonomolo continued: “Upon further reflection on this matter and in order to bring this issue to closure, BCC will strike and remove from your employment file any adverse record in connection with this Incident.” [NJ.com]
Well, that’s nice, I guess. But maybe you read the thing about how they “may have unintentionally erred” — “Oopsy daisy, looks like we suspended you” — and thought their apology seemed a little thin, considering they kind of implied he was a violence-crazed lunatic. You would not be alone.
“The school hasn’t offered anything remotely acceptable,” Schmidt, 47, of Mahwah, said in an interview. “As it stands now, I’m still dealing with reputation damage. No public facility should be able to do that to anybody.”
He added: “If you look me up [online], you’ll find the school talking about school shootings. I don’t think you could do a worse thing to my reputation, and I imagine that’s what their goal was.” [NorthJersey.com]
Sounds like some New Jersey lawyer is about to enter that shirt into evidence as Exhibit A.
