Posted on 04/19/2006 2:01:59 AM PDT by rhema
Highland Heights, KY -- The Northern Kentucky University professor who encouraged her students to vandalize a pro-life display -- and then led them in trashing it -- has apologized. Dr. Sally Jacobson, a tenured 27-year British literature professor, issued her apology just days after saying she saw nothing wrong what she did. "I deeply regret my impulsive action in dismantling that display," Jacobson said late Tuesday. "It was a mistake of judgment for me to invite my students to participate in that action."
Jacobson told WKRC-TV in a taped interview that she hoped her actions did not damage the reputation of the college.
"I really love NKU and care very much about my students and don't want them to be harmed," she said. "At this point, I really want the university to be able to defuse the firestorm of attention around this."
NKU has suspended Jacobson and she will officially retire at the end of the school year. WKRC reports that other professors have taken over her classes for the remainder of the semester.
Local police are investigating the vandalism, which saw Jacobson and several students destroy a pro-life cross display Northern Right to Life set up in the grass outside the student center. A reported from the student newspaper caught Jacobson and her students destroying the display.
University officials authorized the pro-life display, meant to memorialize the 47 million babies who have died since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
NKU President James Votruba, who issued a statement Monday apologizing on behalf of the school, appreciated Jacobson's apology but said the infringement of free speech and the disregard for the exchange of ideas couldn't be tolerated on a college campus.
"This was a very serious lapse in judgment," he told the television station.
"You don't invite students to participate in breaking the law or inhibiting other's free speech. You just don't do that if you're a faculty member," Votruba said.
He indicated he thinks NKU has "responded appropriately" to the concerns about the vandalism.
Votruba said he and Jacobson will meet soon to discuss the professor's retirement.
Read prior coverage: Professor Who Vandalized Pro-Life Display on Abortion Placed on Leave
Professor Who Vandalized Pro-Life Display Defends Actions
College Professor Leads Students in Vandalizing Pro-Life Display on Abortion
Related web sites: Northern Kentucky University
Don't let the doorknob hit you on the way out.
I'm entirely satisfied with this result.
Now I eagerly await further resignations at schools in Alabama {science-teacher and anti-President video}, Colorado {geography teacher and anti-President rant}, and South Dakota {"9/11 victims deserved what they got, and were just a buch of little Eichmanns.}
The State cannot dispense God's justice. The Law cannot turn the other cheek. Carried to your extreme it would basically allow anyone to talk their way out of anything.
The good professor seems sorry only because she realizes that she will probably get her students expelled. She underestimated the firestorm she would generate.
She needs to be made an example of. For too long libs have been able to get away with anything by a non-apology apology after the fact.
That is what happens when you have had abortions in the past and have not come terms with what you did.
I was just thinking that putting the crosses back up, handed to her slowly one at at time , with a history might have more of an impact than a fine.
Yup. And thats the difference between Liberals and Conservitives.
I was wondering about that.
ping for the latest
Besides, I haven't heard her ask for anyones forgiveness, have you? I'm not much of a Christian but I'm pretty sure that there are two sides to that forgiveness thing.
One has to truly repent of ones actions before one can be forgiven, right?
And I'm not up early...I'm working very late. I'ts been a busy night down in the EOC. Hopefully I'll be out of here on time this morning and I can get home to get Lurker Jr off to school and then get some sleep.
L
I'll bet the photos were what contributed to her downfall. Without them, the University could hide behind a "so-and-so said it happened, but the professor denies it."
Apparently to her memorializing babies that are killed because of abortions are "silly"?
Just where does one get to that point of reason?
In the Lib crowd, it goes pretty far - even Oprah.
In Conservitive crowd, jail.
IIRC she was due to retire soon anyways. She just moved it up some weeks.
Okay, with that out of the way, Here's how I would do the "accounting" on what she did. There are three sides to her action. She committed a, well, misdeed against "the Peace"; she injured the people who put up the display by destroying their work; she stomped all over the ethos of an educational institution and over the legitimate expectations of a professor.
So she owes "the Peace" something, something like a fine and/or some time in the pokey where she is deprived of the freedom she misused.
She also owes the folks who put up the display recompense for the damage she did to their property and to the product of their labor AND for the violation of their rights. These days, at least here in central VA, property crimes like this are often handled as part of the criminal sentencing procedure. Bad guys, uh, persons, are -- as PART of their punishment -- told to work with "Offender Aid and Restoration (OAR)" to compensate those they have harmed, in addition to a fine and/or other punishment for violating the civil order.
Losing the protection of her tenured status (assuming she had any) and being required to leave the university faculty seems adequate for her putting her "outrage" ahead of the requirements of an academic community.
That's how I see it. And I don't want the state to be very merciful to someone who stomps on the first amendment as she did. A week in the pokey (and she has to serve the entire week and not on weekends) and $1k fine would be adequate, IMHO.
I agree. Photos were important evidence. Every conservative student these days ought to be given video/audio recording equipment to take with them to school every day.
I wonder why she and her students were not charged with criminal mischief? Go figure.
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