College, Not Professor, Deserves Reprimand

After a 30-year career in education, including service at the Coast Community College District, I thought I had seen it all. I was mistaken.

The shameful conduct of the coast district is, without a doubt, one of the most egregious examples of administrative misconduct I have ever witnessed. The arrogant and politically correct fools who make up certain segments of the coast administration are the ones who should be “reprimanded” for attempting to smear professor Ken Hearlson and suspend his right to due process.

I, for one, hope that Hearlson pursues the variety of legal options open to him and goes after the coast administrators who were involved in the sham along with those students who gave false testimony and made criminal threats against him.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education is to be commended for taking up the fight on behalf of this courageous professor. Albert Einstein once said, “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” We should all be grateful that, apparently, Hearlson will fight coast’s attempts at tyranny, harassment and censorship in the college classroom.

Kent S. Moore

Corona del Mar

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Regarding the description of Orange Coast College as “laid back” and best known for its sailing program (“Nation Watching Battle at OCC,’ Dec. 11,) I am compelled to reply that I have found the majority of OCC faculty and students to be keenly interested in education and learning rather than relaxed. Like many high school graduates, I had no plans for college. But my enrollment at OCC a few years later brought me into a world of interested and excellent instructors, who inspired me to continue on to a major university. Now as a manager at OCC, I see firsthand that the institution and its faculty produce academic excellence every day. OCC sends thousands of transfer students to the University of California and Cal State University systems each year--that’s hard work on everyone’s part. These facts should identify OCC in the story lead, rather than using the easy hooks of surfing students and high-profile recreation programs.

Brad Avery

Director

School of Sailing and Seamanship

Orange Coast College