Connecticut Professor Fired For Giving Colleagues Nazi Salute
Housatonic Community College
(JTA) — A community college in Connecticut fired a business professor who gave a Nazi salute at a faculty meeting days after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
Paul Broadie II, the president of Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, on Thursday announced the firing of Charles Meyrick for performing the gesture while shouting Nazi slogans on Nov. 2 in Manchester, reportedly to protest perceived authoritarianism by the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system during its meeting, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
These actions by Meyrick took place “just days after the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, and triggered several participants to exit the facility out of fear for their safety,” said Mark Ojakian, president of the colleges and universities system. His “threatening actions go far beyond acceptable discourse,” Ojakian added.
At the synagogue, a far-right extremist killed 11 worshipers on Oct. 27.
Meyrick’s acts were during a meeting where faculty from multiple institutions of higher learning had gathered to discuss school consolidation.
According to the school investigation report , Meyrick acknowledged he shouted “sieg heil,” and gave a Nazi salute for several minutes from his seat in the crowd in the auditorium.
Police said they were called to the auditorium and after the meeting asked Meyrick to leave campus. Meyrick responded by asking, “What if I don’t?” and a lieutenant told him he’d be arrested, police said. Two officers then escorted him from campus without incident.
During an internal probe at his college, Meyrick agreed to apologize.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
