by Luke Wachob
If you give those in power an inch, they will take a mile. Administrators at Bergen Community College (BCC) are turning that old adage up to eleven, using their power to investigate threats to place Professor Francis Schmidt on leave without pay and force him to meet with a psychiatrist before being allowing back on campus. The message those administrators deemed potentially “threatening”?
A photo Schmidt posted to Google+ of his daughter wearing a t-shirt with a quote from HBO’s Game of Thrones, specifically, the words of Daenerys Targaryen: “I will take what is mine with fire & blood.”
A simple Google search of the phrase immediately turns up dozens of pages sourcing the quote to Game of Thrones, and the t-shirt also bears the symbol of House Targaryen. Even someone completely unfamiliar with this pop culture behemoth could have discovered the t-shirt’s meaning in seconds.
Schmidt met with BCC executive director Jim Miller and three other administrators to explain the quote and photo, but incredibly reason did not prevail and Schmidt was placed on leave anyway.
BCC’s justification for this is perhaps the most egregious part of the story. Miller said the “fire” referred to in the quote “could be a kind of proxy for AK-47s’.” BCC President Kaye Walter seems to agree, according to Inside Higher Ed: “Walter said she did not believe that the college had acted unfairly, especially considering that there were three school shootings nationwide in January, prior to Schmidt’s post.”
Is BCC really so thick that it believes Scmidt’s photo is threatening a school shooting? Schmidt thinks that his punishment is actually retaliation for a grievance he filed against the school when it passed him up for sabbatical. He was placed on leave just one week later.
True threats are a legitimate exception to freedom of speech, but a photo of your daughter in a Game of Thrones t-shirt is clearly not a true threat. This is yet another example of government exploiting our fear to grow its power, then using that power to attack its critics.
Fortunately, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is on the case, as it was in 2011 when a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stout was forced to meet with the school’s “threat assessment team” after putting a quote from the TV show ‘Firefly’ on his office door. This is not one university running amok. This is a national trend of government invoking safety and security to erode freedom of speech, replacing the marketplace of ideas with a culture of fear.
This is not how the country that gave life to the First Amendment should behave. This is cowardly, censorious, and just plain stupid.
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