Apparently the liar has suffered no consequences at all for perpetrating this hoax:
A spokesman for UMass-Dartmouth, John Hoey, told the Globe earlier this week that the student would not be disciplined as a result of his deception. That statement has sparked protest from another professor at the school, Clyde W. Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis, who said the student should be suspended and forced to make a public apology for deceiving the public. He also called on the faculty members who relayed the students tale to issue public apologies, as well.
The reality is this could have been prevented at many points along the way and it wasnt. This was a conscious and deliberate attempt to perpetrate a hoax, Barrow said.
Barrow said that the faculty members should not have told the press about the students story before verifying it, and he said that their behavior demonstrated an ideological bent in addition to poor judgment.
This incident, Barrow said, was another example of a faculty culture that seems
continually on the edge of hysteria, constantly predisposed to embrace these kinds of incidents at face value.
But Williams said that he and Pontbriand both have moderate views and only wanted to find out the truth about the students story.
The media coverage of the students tale began when Williams mentioned what he had heard about the incident as a side note to a reporter who was interviewing him about President Bushs authorization of domestic wiretapping, Williams said. The story then became the reporters lead, he said.
Williams said he was opposed to any discipline for the student. It wasnt something that would have given this kid the help he needed, he said.
Williams, unfortunately - represents the majority opinion in our "elitist academia"....
The result, is a society full of over educated but characterless and spineless punks..
These smart ass kids NEVER learned the concept of responsibility or consequences for their actions...
In my position prior to retirement from a VERY large High Tech Corporation -- it fell to me to fire a number of these bright and highly paid little darlings for severe lapses of "character and/or morality"...
The shock on their faces upon learning that this wasn't going to be another "mulligan" was pitiful.
The often repeated refrain was, "How can you do this to me - to my career - to my family"?
My only response was "It was YOUR actions that "did it" to your career and family..... Your actions demanded my response".
Semper Fi