A professor at Eastern Maine Community College (EMCC) attacked and discriminated against a Christian conservative student for writing an essay about gun control with which the liberal professor disagreed.
The EMCC student, Katherine Parker, joined WVOM’s George Hale and Ric Tyler Show on Wednesday to discuss the incident, which resulted from a rough draft for an essay she submitted for an English class at the college taught by the English department head Carol Lewandowski.
The assignment was meant to be a persuasive speech in response to an editorial, and Parker chose one written by columnist Douglas Rooks and published in the Portland Press Herald entitled, “Maine Legislature derelict in its duty on ‘red flag’.”
In that editorial, Rooks argued in favor of Democratic state lawmakers holding a hearing on the so-called “red flag” bill that will be put to Maine voters this November as a referendum. Rooks also argued in favor of the red flag law, claiming that Maine’s current “yellow flag” law is “cumbersome” and “stigmatizes” the mentally ill.
In her interview with George Hale and Ric Tyler on Wednesday, Parker said that in her essay for Lewandowski’s class, she agreed with Rooks on the first point that the legislature should have held a hearing on the bill, but disagreed with the veteran Maine journalist on the matter of whether the red flag law would be effective in Maine.
“I responded with agreeing with [Rooks] that the legislative session should have gone on as legally obliged, but I also disagreed, because red flags are not good for Maine in any capacity,” Parker said.
After submitting her rough draft to Lewandowski for feedback, Parker received a response from the community college professor that not only provided comments on her writing, but attacked the student’s opinion and used the student’s Christian faith against her (see below for screenshots of the professor’s response).
Lewandowski told Parker in the feedback to “avoid proselytizing with logical fallacies in a college class,” before referencing the student’s previous essay regarding her Christian faith.
“Wasn’t your former speech a testimony to finding Jesus [sic]. Did Jesus pack heat?” Lewandowski asked, in an apparent attempt to argue that the student’s religious beliefs are incongruous with her views on the red flag law.
Lewandowski then told the student to pick a different topic for her essay due to the professor’s inability to grade it fairly because of her own strong opinions on the subject.
“I find this 2nd amendment nonsense exhausting and highly recommend you choose a different topic since this one is not one I can easily grade, given my own disdain for the misinterpretations of the second amendment,” Lewandowski wrote.
“Hate to tell ya, but guns DO kill [sic],” the EMCC professor wrote, before launching into a list of mass shootings in recent years.
“You clearly do not care about people as much as you care about guns,” Lewandowski accused the student. “Your argument is a solid representation of that. For fairness to you and to me, please choose another topic.”
The community college professor then again tried to use the student’s religious beliefs against her.
“And think again about Jesus packing heat. Really. You and your ilk drive me nuts with your hypocrisy,” Lewandowski wrote.
“Guns kill. Own it,” she added.
Parker described Lewandowski’s response as not only deeply unprofessional, but also personally insulting.
“I knew that going into a community college I would face a degree of persecution. I was aggravated, because while I’ve been facing this type of thing since middle school, I’ve never been personally insulted by a professional college professor or any teacher at all,” Parker said.
She added that her first reaction was to call her mother to ensure she wasn’t overreacting, and her mother shared her aggravation.
Parker then emailed Lewandowski, firmly stating she would not change her essay topic.
“I didn’t tell her how infuriated I was, but I knew that this is more than not okay. This is unprofessional and it’s bullying of a student,” Parker said. “A professor at a college level should be able to grade a paper unbiased despite any topic, and they should not be personally insulting their students for their topic of choice.”
In response to Parker’s email saying she would not change her essay topic, Lewandowski again told her to change the topic, and suggested that Parker pursue the matter with the department chair and the dean.
“Please change your topic as I earlier requested as this is a trigger issue for me. No pun intended,” Lewandowski wrote.
“I admit I cannot assess the gun issue objectively,” the community college professor wrote.
Public records show that Carol Lewandowski has been working at Eastern Maine Community College since 1995, and in 2022 was paid a salary of $119,283, as well as $44,087 in benefits. Federal Election Commission (FEC) data shows that Lewandowski also donated three times to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign in 2024, for a total of $200 in contributions.
Parker said she also had a discussion with EMCC Dean of Academics Lynn Hunter, but was left with the impression that Lewandowski would not be fired or disciplined for her unprofessional comments.
“We discussed the discrimination piece, and the dean assured me that discrimination was not tolerated at the community college, but she did not give me a clear answer when I asked her how she felt about what the teacher said to me — she assured me that she would be getting both sides of the story,” Parker said.
“I was not confident at all that she would handle it appropriately, and the appropriate action for this level of discrimination and unprofessionalism would be to fire said professor,” she said.
“At at the end, [the dean] apologized for what I was going through, and I responded with, no, I’m sorry for all the students who she’s done this to before, because [Lewandowski has] been teaching now for 20 to 30 years, and they can’t stand up to her because they do not have the resource nor the courage that I have being raised the way that I was,” Parker said.
“The part that bothered Kate the most was when the Professor said that she clearly doesn’t care about people. That really got to her,” the student’s mother wrote in an email to the Maine Wire on Wednesday.
“She is one of the kindest, sweetest 20-year-olds you will ever meet. She is a friend to people and animals. She works in a daycare that works with special needs and non-verbal, autistic kids,” she wrote.
“What would happen if this professor said the same thing to someone who was Jewish or Islamic? A trans-gender or gay child? Why is her Christianity and views on firearms policy something this professor thinks she can bully and get away with?” the student’s mother asked.
“The outcome of the meeting with the Dean is that they are ‘looking at both sides.’ I’m not sure what’s to look at,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter if Kate’s paper was terrible (it wasn’t). It doesn’t matter if she chose a restricted topic (which she didn’t). What matters is, this 30++ year “professor” bullied a student. She needs to be held accountable. We had no feelings coming out of that meeting that anything is going to happen to this professor,” she added.
Parker’s mother, Laura Whitcomb, is the president of Gun Owners of Maine, a pro-firearms rights group.
Following Parker’s interview on WVOM Wednesday morning, the National Rifle Association – Institute for Legislative Action issued a statement.
“It is disturbing that public schools in Maine have completely bowed to unhinged, woke indoctrination and distorted anti-gun rhetoric rather than providing an open environment for respectful discussion of the important public policy issues of the day,” NRA-ILA Executive Director John Commerford said.
“Despite the professor’s obvious bias and unfounded remarks regarding gun ownership, Kate’s First Amendment rights to share her opinions on the Second Amendment and her faith should remain intact, without fear of retribution or ridicule. Kate has every right to voice her concerns regarding the push to enact so-called “red flag” laws in Maine, and we fully support her efforts to articulate her beliefs,” Commerford added.
Katherine Parker’s essay that she submitted to Carol Lewandowski can be downloaded and read below:
