An adjunct law professor at Georgetown University Law Center has been fired after being caught on camera making comments about black students that the dean of the law school called “disgusting” and “reprehensible”. A second deputy, who was seen nodding while the comments were being made, has been placed on administrative leave.
In the Zoom video, Professor Sandra Sellers has a conversation about evaluating students and says, “I hate to say this… I end up having a fear every semester that many of my lower blacks are black. Happens almost every semester And it’s like, “Oh, come on.” There are some really good ones, but there are usually a few that are just at the bottom. It drives me crazy. “
The deputy she spoke to, Professor David Batson, does not challenge her and nods “yes”.
Bill Treanor, the dean of the law school, released a statement on Wednesday saying that the conversation “contained objectionable statements. We are responding very seriously to this situation. I … find the content repugnant.”
On Thursday, he released a statement saying he was “shocked”, had spoken to both professors and fired salespeople who told him she intended to quit. Treanor said Batson had been put on administrative leave, adding that neither professor would have any input in assessing the students in their negotiation class.
“This is certainly not the end of our work to address the many structural issues of racism reflected in this painful incident, including explicit and implicit bias, the responsibility of bystanders and the need for more comprehensive anti-bias training,” Treanor said.
WUSA-TV, affiliated with CBS Washington, DC, reports that the Georgetown Black Law Students Association had called for vendors to be fired, saying, “No suspension. No investigation. The university must take swift and definitive action in the face of blatant and blatant racism. “
Hassan Ahmad, a law student from Georgetown who shared the video on Twitter, told The New York Times that the discussion between the deputies took place last month.
He explained to the newspaper that the students were logged out of the class, but the video system continued to record and uploaded the video to a class website.
Ahmad shared the video online on Wednesday, the Times says. It has been viewed more than 750,000 times.
In his tweet uploading the video, Ahmad said Sellers and Batson were “openly racist over a recorded Zoom call. Beyond unacceptable.”
Ahmad also tweeted that he “feels so damn guilty for being on our school’s admissions committee and bringing in students from underrepresented backgrounds into an environment with professors like these. How many have these conversations recorded?”
Sellers showed her letter of resignation to the Times. In it, she said she was “very sorry for my hurtful and misguided comments.”
“I would never do anything to intentionally hurt my students or Georgetown Law and wish I could take my words back,” she said. “Regardless of my intention, I have done irreparable damage and I am really sorry.”