A California professor was placed on leave after a video of her berating a student during a Zoom class went viral.
According to the New York Post, an adjunct professor at Cypress College was placed on a leave of absence after she berated 19-year-old student Braden Ellis for calling police “heroes.” The school said that it was the unidentified professor’s first and last class at the school.
“The adjunct professor will be taking a leave of absence for the duration of her assignment at Cypress College,” the school said. “This was her first course at Cypress and she had previously indicated her intention to not return in the fall.”
Ellis was giving a presentation on “cancel culture” and why it is “so destructive and tearing our country apart.” Ellis said that during his speech, he mentioned how activists attempted to “cancel” the children’s show “Paw Patrol” in light of the anti-police sentiment stemming from the Black Lives Matter movement.
In the allotted question and answer portion of Ellis’s presentation, the professor scolded Ellis for his pro-police views. The professor also claimed that the idea of policing was derived from catching slaves in the American south.
“So you brought up the police in your speech a few times. So, what is your main concern? Since, I mean honestly … the issue is systemic,” the professor said. “Because the whole reason we have police departments in the first place, where does it stem from? What’s our history? Going back to what [another classmate] was talking about, what does it stem from? It stems from people in the south wanting to capture runaway slaves.”
Later in the conversation, the professor claimed that she would not call the police if someone had a knife or a gun near her.
The transcript reads:
Ellis: I think [police] are heroes in a sense because they come to your need and they come and help you. They have problems just like every other business, but we should fix that —
Professor: It’s not a business. I think that’s the problem, is looking at it as a business. Because they’re actually supposed to protect and serve the people.
Ellis: They do protect us. Who do we call when we’re in trouble and someone has a knife or a gun?
Professor: I wouldn’t call the police.
Ellis: Why wouldn’t you call the police?
Professor: I don’t trust them. My life’s in more danger in their [presence].
Ellis: Professor, who would you call?
Professor: I wouldn’t call anybody.
Ellis: If [someone] intruded your house with a gun … would you have a gun on you? Who would you call?
Ellis told The Daily Wire that he was shocked by his professor’s comments and also worried about the future of the American education system.
“I was shocked to hear her comments about police, but I stood firm in my beliefs,” Ellis said. “We need to fight back against this liberal ideology spreading in our colleges and save America.”