University of Delaware Professor Fired For Saying Otto Warmbier “got exactly what he deserved”
Kathy Dettwyler sparked a backlash on Facebook when she wrote Otto Warmbier was “typical of a mindset of a lot of young, white, rich, clueless males”.
Otto Warmbier, 22, died a week after he was freed by North Korea, where he was serving 15 years hard labour.
He was medically evacuated earlier this month and died in a coma.
Dettwyler, an anthropology professor at the University of Delaware, criticized Warmbier in a post on her Facebook page, blaming his parents for what happened to him.
“These are the same kids who cry about their grades because they didn’t think they’d really have to read and study the material to get a good grade,” she wrote.
“His parents ultimately are to blame for his growing up thinking he could get away with whatever he wanted.”
“Maybe in the US, where young, white, rich, clueless white males routinely get away with raping women,” she continued.
“Not so much in North Korea. And of course, it’s Otto’s parents who will pay the price for the rest of their lives.”
Before Dettwyler’s post was removed, it was shared by thousands of users, including some who said they would not send their children to the university because of her comments.
The college said in a statement on Sunday it would not re-hire Ms Dettwyler to teach “in the future”.
The school said in an earlier statement that Ms Dettwyler’s comments were “particularly distressing and inconsistent with our values”.
“We condemn any and all messages that endorse hatred and convey insensitivity toward a tragic event such as the one that Otto Warmbier and his family suffered,” the school said.
It appears that Professor Dettwyler got exactly what she deserved. It’s not imprisonment in a North Korean labor camp, cruel punishment or even death. But getting fired for publicly proclaiming a college student deserved to die seems like justice to me.