The Orlando Sentinel reported that Professor Sam Joeckel was fired by Palm Beach Atlantic University, a private Christian university where he has taught for more than two decades. A student complained that he discussed”racial justice” as a topic for his students to write about.
Joeckel walked into his office one day last week and discovered that his telephone and computer were gone. Apparently a parent complained that he was indoctrinating students by teaching about racism.
Joeckel had an idea something was up because he was called in by administrators to explain his rational for teaching about racial justice. There was also a rumor that he had said something positive about gay people,which the university forbids.
The president of the university, Dr. Debra Schwann, took a personal interest in the case.
The parent who complained had “a reasonable concern about Dr. Joeckel lecturing substantially on the history of racism and racial justice in a class designed to teach writing,” Schwinn wrote in the email.
Afterwards, she said, the dean and provost reached out to Joeckel and “shared their intention to schedule a time to review his syllabus with him so they could understand better the pedagogical rationale for including these lectures in a writing class.”
Later in the email, Schwinn went on to describe PBAU’s approach to teaching about racial issues from a “biblical worldview.”
His course consisted of four units: the one on racial justice, others on comedy and humor, gothic and horror, and gender equality.
Current and former students describe Joeckel as a beloved professor who was well known on campus. Several were confused by Schwinn’s email and the allegation that he was indoctrinating students.
Chrissy Perez, 22, a former honors student at PBAU who graduated in 2022, took many of Joeckel’s honors courses, which she described as a mix of philosophy and history. In one course, Joeckel taught about modern-day social justice movements, including racial justice movements, Perez said, but it was “nothing radical at all.”
“The only thing that was even kind of unique about the unit was that it presented documents that were written by people of color rather than history about people of color written by white people,” she said.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Gosh, wasn’t this exactly why academic freedom was created? And isn’t this why private colleges and universities still refuse to sign onto the program with the American Association of University Professors?
Would ACLU take on such a case?
“There was also a rumor that he had said something positive about gay people, which the university forbids.” (Emphasis added)
I’m sorry, but I lack sympathy for anyone who would teach at a “university” (sic) that would have such a rule. He should have expected something like this and he’s “lucky” he lasted that long.
@Dienne — I take it from the university’s view, it would be okay to say negative things about gay people. Geez, how Christian of them, eh?
Absolutely. Jesus was very anti-gay, y’know. (/sarcasm)
These regressive laws are doing what they are designed to do. The vague nature of the “anti-woke” law permits a great deal of latitude on how to interpret it. The objective is to put professors on the defensive and undermine academic freedom. Florida is where “woke goes to die” along with freedom of speech while ignorance thrives.
This has nothing to do with “anti-woke” laws. This is a private college. They can do what they want. “Anti-woke” laws are a reflection of the ideology promoted by this “university”, which Joeckel was presumably aware of when he hired on.
The point, I think, is that the campaign against academic freedom takes place at all levels, and constantly pushes the conversation toward fascist singularity
Roy – I get that, but the campaign starts at – or at least is largely propelled by – these private xtian colleges. What happened here wasn’t the result of the campaign where some small school was overtaken by right-wing ideology, but rather something inevitable in a bastion and incubator of right-wing ideology.
The “anti-woke” crowd simply gave this school permission to look principled to its right winged constituency.
What happened at this college is a reflection of what has been normalized. This professor taught for 25 years and he didn’t just suddenly “get woke”. A parent realized it was now acceptable to demand a professor get fired for this and a school realized it could publicly embrace what the Republicans have made acceptable — say out loud more racist stuff than David Duke was marginalized for saying out loud because what used to be unacceptable is now normal. For that we can thank the people who insisted that empowering Trump and having a far right Supreme Court and federal judiciary wasn’t a problem and was no worse than having an evil Democrat as a president. It’s not surprising that these are the same people who are now advancing what is basically Henry Kissinger’s realpolitik, where the US is encouraged to make friends with the most repressive, dangerous, murderous authoritarians because it is in “our” best interests and a concern for the morality of bombing a country (Ukraine) out of oblivion just does not matter to them.
Though you are technically correct, dienne, have to agree with nycpsp here. A private school can “do what it wants,” but it wants to maintain or increase enrollment, which requires it to be sensitive to changes in popular sentiment. This small religious college was apparently long OK with this professor’s interpretation of Christian principles as applied to his English courses. The “chilling effect” of DeStalinist’s “parental rights” stance and micromgt of pubsch & state higher ed curriculum cannot be contained to state-funded ed. It is social law, and inevitably percolates throughout society.
Where stupid goes to flourish.
yup
SICK!
In RED states controlled by MAGA RINO theo/fascists, there is no freedom unless freedom means the theo-fascists make all the decisions.
My God, what are we becoming?
Exactly what we are.
Man! When I was in college, I would have been so humiliated if mommy and daddy called to complain about what the professor said. Even if the professor were a RWNJ.
This is not new. Conservatives have been trying to take over their own institutions since the moral majority. I have a friend who was pushed out of his position in the church organization because he was not a reactionary conservative in the 1990s.
What we are seeing in the modern Republicans is this philosophy gone rogue.
Florida, where freedom of speech goes to die.
If you’re white, rich, or connected, you have plenty of free speech in Florida!
Let’s back up from this a bit. Why are Repugnicans suddenly so interested in micromanaging curricula and pedagogy?
Well, because they are losing. Look at polls of young people. Look at our popular culture. ON EVERY ISSUE, young people, people of color, and the popular entertainment culture oppose what Repugnicans stand for. They detest the Repugnicans’ sexism, homophobia, nationalism, racism, transphobia, and militarism. They embrace equity and tolerance and social welfare programs to improve equity. And Repugnicans want desperately to reverse these trends. So, they’ve decided that the root cause is schools. The kids oppose them because they are being INDOCTRINATED. In other words, the pugs can’t wrap their little minds around the idea that young people and poc and folks who generate popular culture think as they do because they know more and have wider experience of the world. They haven’t lived all their lives in a tiny tighty whitey bubble.
The only way that Repugnicans can turn this back is by force. With violence. Just passing Don’t Say Gay laws won’t cut it.
And, ofc, they have no qualms about using violence at all. Give them the power, and that’s exactly what they will do.
Bob: not sure they think it is the schools. Perhaps they know the older people who make up their base know little about what goes on in the schools. That way they can rely on their base being suspicious of what they do not understand. They have worked over all the other demons. They have settled on schools for now, but will they move on?
That said, they must be aware that young people tend to react positively to change in society. They have also to know that the generation that gave us Woodstock also have us the last 40 years of movement to the Right. I do not know what they do with that.
The Woodstock phenomenon was overhyped. It really did not extend to the MAJORITY of U.S. young people. Here’s a telling stat: People under 24 overwhelmingly supported the War in Vietnam, while it as opposed by people 60 and older. Not what people imagine to be the case, but that’s true. Wonder why those kids grew up to vote for Ronald Reagan? Because most of them were not flower children. Most of them were the kids joining in gangs to burn Beatles records.
I think Nixon’s landslide over McGovern was proof of this. The combination of the Civil Rights victories and anti-war protests provided a significant backlash from conservatives and moderates.
But this is no longer the case. Poll young people today, and they oppose the Repugnicans on EVERYTHING–on abortion, on gay and trans rights, on national health insurance. And the brighter Repugnicans–mostly the richer ones–see this and find it extremely disturbing. So, they know they have to change things or they will got the way of the Know Nothings.
That’s why the Pug think tank and propaganda people are turning their guns on schools.
They want them to go to school and learn to think that the US is the GREATEST country and can do no wrong, that Jesus is their co-pilot, that gays and trans people are abominations before the Lord, that Donald Trump was chosen by God to lead a revolution in America, that we need to lock up more black people, that we need to send the police and the citizens’ militias to go after those BLM folks.
and that marriage is between one man and one woman (and, on occasion, the pool boy).
Bob @3/17 11:26pm– So much rewriting of history here!
I’m not surprised that in ’69, people under 24 overwhelmingly supported VNW: 50% of them weren’t in college– so, draftable, & bought into anti-communist domino theory et al rationalization. And the 50% who were in college– & were anti-VNW– were perhaps 60% of enrollment. [I am surprised that the majority over 60yo were anti-VNW; never knew that.]
But let’s fast-forward 5 yrs to 1979. The groups you’re describing were by then 29 or younger & 65 or older. What happened in the middle? This is where the backlash to the ‘60s played out via the Moral Majority. Because the culture of 1963-1974 [draft to VNW and concomitant protests] wasn’t just about antiwar sentiment. It was about long hair and blue jeans and communes and free love and “living together” sans kids courtesy of the bc pill, then legalized abortion—in sum, a wave of liberalism. Woodstock displayed all of that at midpoint in 1969.
Republicans are the ones that want to indoctrinate young people. One of the reasons they are pushing vouchers is to establish islands of indoctrination in which right wing parents keep their children isolated. The home school movement has an even greater potential to expose young people to right wing propaganda.
Voucher schools are free to indoctrinate. Most are religious schools. They are free to discriminate. They are free to refuse admission to kids with disabilities.
exactly
I think it is very clear that the right wing of Ivy League Republicans are in line with Trump when he said he loves the poorly educated. I also believe they understand that harsh policies on reading and math reduce the learning faculties of the general population. This allows misguided privatization policies t thrive in such a proliferation of ignorance. Fox, right wing radio, the IRS, televangelists, and now the Republican part all understand that their grift only flourishes when there is little intellectual resistance.
I also think it is because schools are not really organized to resist such bullying. As a democratic institution, the public schools need community support. IT is up to the general populous to fight back.
They were just waiting to open Pandora’s box. This is the story I remember when I taught American Government. I always thought, “So, it was okay for the kid to have his phone out in class recording without the teacher’s knowledge then distribute it without his knowledge as well.” Hmmm…maybe it’s me but something’s not right. When I was in college, some of the professors would not allow us to tape their lecture for our notes. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2006/03/benn-m08.html
Narrow and small minded people.