by DAN CALLOWAY
Published 2 April 2010
WEAVERVILLE, NC – About a month ago, an East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania associate professor, Gloria Y. Gadsden, was placed on paid administrative leave after a student complained to the administrators of the University regarding two posts Ms. Gadsden made on her wall on her Facebook account. She was reinstated after being cleared by a psychologist.
The two wall posts stated: “Had a good day today, didn’t want to kill even one
student.:-). Now, Friday was a different story…” and “Does anyone know where I can find a very discrete [sic] hitman, it’s been that kind of day?”
Associate professor Gadsden contends that she was placed on paid administrative leave not because her wall postings were threatening or raised “red flags” with the school, but because she had filed a racial-harassment complaint a month earlier with the University administrators, and because she had written an essay for the Chronicle Review in 2008, which described the challenges that black faculty members face at the University.
After returning to her job following her reinstatement at the University, professor Gadsden was met with mixed feelings from students and other faculty members regarding her Facebook posts. Some students stormed out of class upon seeing her return to the classroom and, other similar actions required the University to post school law enforcement officers at her classroom door to prevent any further trouble and to provide her campus security protection. Professor Gadsden stated that she was sorry that she hadn’t contacted an attorney before giving in to having her posts removed from Facebook and, in fact, was sorry she ever opened an account on that social networking website.
It is my opinion that associate professor Gadsden should have shown a little more decorum and presence of mind to have posted two such wall posts on Facebook knowing full well that doing so might cause those who had access to her postings to become alarmed due to her comments and the past history of violence in many Universities across the Nation. On the other hand, Ms. Gadsden’s rights under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution…that of freedom of speech, and potentially her rights under the Fourteenth Amendment…those that cover the Bill of Rights of all U.S. citizens may have been violated by the removal of the Facebook post.
The new provisions under The Department of Homeland Security, specifically the Patriot Act, have changed the strength and validity of every U.S. citizen’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights under the Constitution due to the increased foreign and domestic terrorism that we have seen since 9/11. It will be interesting to see Facebook’s reaction to Ms. Gadsden’s posts removal.
