Nearly 50 Maine Republican lawmakers on Monday sent a letter to the presidents of the Maine Community College System (MCCS) and Eastern Maine Community College (EMCC) calling for the termination of a professor for “inappropriate and discriminatory comments” made to a conservative student.
The letter, spearheaded by Buxton Republican Rep. Nathan Carlow, was signed by 47 Republican members of the Maine House of Representatives and Senate, including every Republican on the Legislature’s Education Committee and the ranking members of the Appropriations Committee.
“We, the undersigned members of the Maine State Legislature, write to convey our strongest disapproval of the inappropriate comments allegedly made by Dr. Carol Lewandowski, a professor at Eastern Maine Community College, to one of her conservative students,” the letter to MCCS President David Daigler and EMCC President Liz Russell reads.
The conservative student in question, Katherine Parker, went on WVOM’s George Hale and Ric Tyler Show last week to draw attention to feedback that Lewandowski had provided to an essay she had written for her oral communications class.
Lewandowski’s feedback on the essay, which argued against the controversial “red flag” gun control law, included telling Parker to “avoid proselytizing with logical fallacies in a college class,” numerous references to Parker’s Christian faith, and a request for Parker to change topics due to the professor saying she could not grade an essay about gun control fairly.
“Attempts to intimidate and silence students – especially based on religious status, ideology, and political affiliation – are completely unacceptable and run counter to the goals of higher education,” the lawmaker’s letter reads.
The GOP lawmakers condemned what they called Lewandowski’s “flippant mockery of the student’s Christian faith,” saying they will “do everything in our power to defend the right to worship everywhere in Maine – including on our college campuses.”
Lewandowski had written in her feedback to Parker’s essay, “Wasn’t your former speech a testimony to finding Jesus. Did Jesus pack heat?”
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Citing statistics from the University of North Carolina that indicate nearly 70 percent of conservative students fear retaliation and harassment, the lawmakers wrote, “Because of the comments made by Professor Lewandowski, their fears now have a face, a name, and a home at Eastern Maine Community College – unless you take appropriate action now.”
“There is no excuse for these comments, and we urge the system to fire this professor with immediate force and effect,” they wrote.
The Maine Wire reported on Monday that Lewandowski has been replaced in her teaching role of the oral communications course for the remainder of the semester.
Read the full Republican state lawmakers’ letter to the MCCS and EMCC presidents below:
