Widener University School of Law has suspended associate professor Lawrence Connell, despite the fact that a university panel cleared him of sexual and racial harassment. Connell must take a year off without pay, undergo psychiatric evaluation, and apologize to two students before he can return to campus.
Connell’s attorney has said he has no intention of meeting the school’s demands.
“They’ll never terminate him, but they set three conditions that he won’t ever meet,” said Thomas Neuberger.
Two students accused Connell of using violent hypotheticals in his criminal law class, and making offensive remarks about women and minorities, including Widener Dean Linda Ammons, who was named in one of his hypos.
In February, the school formally charged Connell with making racist and sexist comments and not cooperating with the investigation. But a panel of law school faculty members reviewed the matter and recommended the school not dismiss Connell.
Two students then filed complaints under the school’s harassment and discrimination code, which led to a university panel decision in late July that found no “clear and convincing evidence” that Connell had committed discrimination or harassment.
But the committee found that Connell had retaliated against the two students who had filed the complaint when he circulated an email to explain why he was taking administrative leave and also when his attorney announced that Connell wanted to identify and sue the students who had accused him of wrongdoing.
“Filing an informal or formal complaint of discrimination or harassment is protected activity under the law,” Widener said in a statement. “The university prohibits retaliation against any individual who files a complaint in good faith or who participates in a discrimination and/or harassment inquiry.”
Neuberger disagrees that the acts were retaliatory, saying Connell was defending himself.
Connell, who had already sued law school Dean Linda Ammons and the university, now plans to now add $1.8 million in claims — the amount of wages and benefits he would have received working until age 70.
Connell, who is white and conservative, has said Dean Ammons, who is black, has a vendetta against him.
Ammons reportedly was the one that recommended suspension without pay for one year to the university president.
