Duquesne University, a private Catholic college in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has put a professor on paid leave after a video surfaced of him using a racial slur repeatedly in a class, CBS News reports.
Gary Shank, teaching a course in educational psychology, told the students that it was fine to use the n-word in his class because they would be using it “in a pedagogical sense” to demonstrate a point, not in an insulting way.
Shank said that the word was commonly used when he was growing up. He repeated the word at least three times in the video, which shows part of a presentation slide with the title “Race (from a cultural sense).” The slide says “Based on perceived physical differences. Values assigned to race is cultural not physical.”
Unfortunately for him, the university did not share such a view.
“As an educator, you should always be mindful of the impact of your actions on the students you are obligated by the profession to teach,” Gretchen Generett, dean of the School of Education, said in a letter to students in the class. “Your intentions are of no consequence when a student’s learning is disrupted by what you believe to be okay. Your actions are what students will remember.”
Shank has been placed on paid leave while the university conducts a review of his conduct, but his profile has already been removed from the university’s website.