I’d have to check it out, but my memory is that it was a public school teacher, possibly in DC, and that he did lose his job.
There’s no reason why this lunacy couldn’t have taken place in a hundred places around this country. Not that I’m saying that it did, just that they haven’t found a cure for stupidity yet, nor for willful ignorance.
Looks like there was more than one - I know the prof from UW, but there also appears to be a “Washington DC staffer” that lost his job over the word.
http://www.adversity.net/special/niggardly.htm