Francis Schmidt, an art and 3-D animation professor at Bergen Community College in New Jersey, is a huge Game of Thrones fan, which means his young daughter is a big Brienne booster, too. In January, Schmidt took a photo of seven-year-old Sophia doing a yoga pose while a wearing his Thrones shirt and posted it to Google+. Now, Google+ pictures are usually as popular as a Lannister in Winterfell, but Schmidt’s dean happened to see it, and he was suspended over the shirt’s SHOCKING message.
More like, he should’ve been fired. Get it? FIRED. Eh, you know nothing, everyone.
Schmidt said…he was called before college officials, who questioned him as to whether the photo represented a threat against the dean. Schmidt said the Human Resources and security officials who interviewed him seemed unfamiliar with the show, so he searched for the quote on Google and came up with 30.8 million hits.
He said the interview, however, led to his suspension without pay and a trip to a psychiatrist before he was cleared to return to campus.
Schmidt said he asked the officials why they thought the slogan was threatening, and one said “when you see the word fire, then someone shows up with an AK-47 here shooting everybody,” he said.
“I had no idea what to say to that. For God’s sake, I’m a middle-aged art professor,” Schmidt said. “I don’t own any firearms.” (Via)
So much for Sophia bringing her pet dragon in for show and tell.
