I am very concerned that you are engaging in unprofessional conduct through intimidation of a student.
You responded to a student email as follows: He said: "DON'T E-MAIL YOUR TERRORIST LOVING CRAP TO ME" ... As chair of the department and a university professor, I want to point out to you that your response is inappropriate and harassing. No, Dr Barlow, your response is inappropriate and harassing, not his. He simply made a demand to stop getting "spammed" email whose point he disagreed with vehemently and emotionally. You on other hand, after lecturing about free speech, contradicted yourself by indicating his viewpoint was not only not welcome, but his expression was action for University discipline. Apparently some 'free speech' is better than other 'free speech'.
It is your right as a citizen of this country to hold whatever beliefs you want; however, it is not your right to impose those beliefs on anyone else. ... It is not necessary for me to respond to your rude and harassing email, but I have chosen to do so in the hope that you can learn that hate-speech is never appropriate and that there are policies and procedures in place at UT, which you have violated.
Your email - not his - constitutes harrassment. You are the one who sees his viewpoint as not legitimiate and you desire to impose your viewpoint on him.
I assume that you will respect both my effort to respond to you and the fact that it would be a very bad idea for you to email me in return or ever again email anyone in this department. You can be assured that your email will be addressed according to those policies and procedures, which, by the way, follow federal guidelines. I have copied my email to Ms. Sharp, to the asscociate dean of the Humanities, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and to the President of the University of Toledo.
Your email - not his - constitutes harrassment.
Hate speech is speech intended to defame others and intimidate them from exercising their own freedoms. By engaging the above threats, Dr Barlow, you have engaged in harrassment and, indeed, Hate Speech by your own definition. Will the University Deans have to convene in order to make it PERFECTLY CLEAR that that the occasional emotional email taht simply expresses a viewpoint one disagrees with should be ignored and that the unwarranted threats and intimidation that you engaged in constitute unprofessional behavior, as rude and far more damaging than the email you responded to?
Dr. Daniel M. Johnson, President of University of Toledo