A legitimate team claims there is a “very bad precedent for academic independence on campus.”
A higher education legal team reported to The College Fix that the University ofHawai’i had not responded to questions about how a professor had “academic liberty” was being violated after changing a presentation where he gave a hypothetical illustration of a shooting.
According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, Kenneth Lawson, a teacher of legal laws at the university’s Mnoa school, refused to change his session after a student complained. The school then did it for him.
” Professor Lawson evidently made a legitimate use of educational freedom freedom by using the hypothetical.” The school is open to the public. The First Amendment binds it, according to Graham Piro, a other FIRE member, in an interview on Friday.
The college, according to Piro, has not yet responded to its most recent letter, which asked administrators to reconsider their activities and honor Lawson’s academic freedom, which was sent on January 22.
He told The Fix,” I think it sets a really bad precedent for intellectual independence on campus.”
The College Fix three instances via email the university’s media relations company, but they did not receive a reply to inquiries about the situation. Lawson was also contacted by The Fix via contact, but he did not respond.
According to FIRE, Lawson ( pictured ) demonstrated transferred intent in a hypothetical example of a shooting in a law class last fall. Moved purpose is defined as” when a respondent intends to harm one target, but unknowingly harms a second victim in the process.”
According to images from his lesson shared by FIRE, Lawson used images of himself and two university deans ( pictured above ) to support this point.
According to FIRE, the plan was to challenge learners to consider the legal issues “if a professor at his organization attempted to shoot another professor, missed, and hit Lawson instead.”
According to FIRE, these hypotheses are” prevalent in law school,” but a student complained to the school.
According to the legal team, the private objection made reference to shootings that took place close to the campus and described the hypothetical scenario as “extremely disturbing.”
Lawson was contacted by college leaders and asked to remove the speculative, but he refused.
According to FIRE’s first letter to the university,” At that meeting, ]law Dean Camille ] Nelson informed Lawson that the hypothetical and photos of the deans “had not violated any policy or law” but still ordered Lawson to change the example.”
According to Piro, the university responded to the text on January 3 and then moved Lawson’s training to another location.
But, Lawson’s photo and the fictional were not removed by administrators; instead, they simply had to be replaced with universal images of people, he told The Fix.  ,
Piro said,” It’s strange. It “does question” how they were able to explain why they were concerned about the justification for their concern for being sensitive to pupil worries about gun violence on campus.
It was claimed in the school’s text to FIRE that” we had mischaracterized some facts and proceeded with the grievance,” according to Piro. However, they declined to address the issues raised about intellectual freedom in a meaningful way.
They may always want to learn what the university has to say, he told The Fix,” but they never really engaged us,” he continued.
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Additionally, the professor sued Lawson for statements he made in 2023 after FIRE became involved in the situation.
According to Piro, Dean Nelson is the same executive who was involved in the conflict based on his most recent teaching example. Piro questioned the intentions behind the complaint.
According to FIRE, Lawson and Nelson engaged in a heated argument about a screen without dark facilitators at a faculty meeting in February 2023. Both Lawson and Nelson are of color.
The school launched an investigation into Lawson’s creation of a “hostile work environment” in 2023. According to FIRE’s record, it also punished him by briefly outlawing him from school and then “forbidging him to complete required training and provide a one-month suspension without pay.”
According to the defamation lawsuit, Lawson “planned to and followed through on hijacking the meeting to strike and fear Nelson.” Additionally, the lawsuit makes reference to emails he sent a few days after, which were followed by a listserv request to ban the screen.
According to FIRE, Nelson alleges that Lawson’s reported accusations that she was a silent” Intelligent Negro” caused her significant emotional distress and reputational damage.
The slander lawsuit was recently filed by Lawson’s attorneys, alleging that it seeks to” frost and silence his constitutionally protected speech.”
The Fix contacted Piro to find out what the FIRE hopes the university’s goal with Professor Lawson would be.
We want to see the school acknowledge that Lawson’s unilateral change violated his right to intellectual freedom, Piro said.
We want to observe them re-create the display so that Lawson can do it again. We also want to see them undertake to not doing this in the prospect because the university’s unilateral course change law is very troubling, he said.
MORE: A undergraduate journalist from Brown University began looking into operational slack. He is currently the subject of an investigation.
IMAGES CAPTION AND CREDIT: The University of Hawaii changed the demonstration that Professor Kenneth Lawson gave in the before and after variations. University of Hawaii Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
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