No place for untrue theories on campus

Carl Hiaasen, in his Jan. 10 column, and Fred Grimm a week earlier, condemned the callous lies that deny the existence of the recent mass shootings such as in San Bernardino, Charleston, Newtown and other places.

These despicable and reprehensible theories taught by former Florida Atlantic University professor James F. Tracy claim that the events were entirely fabricated by President Obama and the news media to legitimize his gun-control legislation.

These claims are not only hurtful to the victims and their families, but are gross lies that shouldn’t be taught in a university or other educational institution.

The school is right to terminate him.

Free speech allows him to say what he wants, but a university does not have to pay him for it or allow it on the premises.

But wait! Isn’t a university a place for the free exchange of different ideas, even if controversial? Isn’t that an intellectual freedom that should be protected? That is what we hear when a professor denies the Holocaust in the classroom.

We always hear that justification for those particular lies, even though they are hurtful to the many thousands or millions of victims, their families and their memories.

Why is denial of the Holocaust, of which there are countless records, both images and text, as well as witnesses, less alarming than denial of these recent tragic events? Where is the demand for dismissal of these perpetrators?

Any teacher or professor at a school or university who teaches something that he knows is untrue, or should know, doesn’t belong there, especially if supported, even in part, by taxpayer funding. These things are motivated by politics or hatred.

They should not be tolerated in educational institutions.

Many topics are truly controversial or subject to unproven theories, but not these.

This story was originally published January 14, 2016 at 5:37 PM with the headline "No place for untrue theories on campus."