After Eastern Maine Community College (EMCC) professor Carol Lewandowski received significant backlash for providing unprofessional and discriminatory feedback to a student’s essay about gun control, Lewandowski will no longer be teaching the class for the remainder of the semester.
Lewandowski generated controversy last week after the EMCC student in question, Katherine Parker, went on WVOM’s George Hale and Ric Tyler Show and made public the feedback that the professor gave her on the essay that she wrote for the oral communications class .
Lewandowski’s feedback included telling Parker to “avoid proselytizing with logical fallacies in a college class,” questioning, “Wasn’t your former speech a testimony to finding Jesus [sic]. Did Jesus pack heat?” in a reference to the student’s Christian faith.
The professor also expressed exhaustion with “this 2nd amendment nonsense” and recommended a different topic, admitting, “I find this… not one I can easily grade, given my own disdain for the misinterpretations of the second amendment.”
Additionally, she wrote, “Hate to tell ya, but guns DO kill [sic],” accused Parker of caring more about guns than people, and urged, “For fairness to you and to me, please choose another topic.”
She further remarked, “And think again about Jesus packing heat. Really. You and your ilk drive me nuts with your hypocrisy,” and concluded with “Guns kill. Own it.”
According to an email obtained by the Maine Wire, Lynne Manion, another EMCC professor in the humanities department, will now be taking over for Lewandowski in teaching the oral communications course for the remainder of the summer semester.
While Manion wrote in her email to the students that she will be “filling in for Carol,” the email does not state a reason for Lewandowski being replaced.
“Oral Communications is my favorite class to teach; however, I realize it is challenging to have a new instructor come in at the midway point,” Manion wrote. “I will work diligently to make sure this transition is as smooth as possible.”
Manion said she would be essentially overhauling the course following Lewandowski’s departure, explaining that she would be providing a whole new set of activities for the students that will meet the objectives of the course in the remaining time. She even advised students not to worry about doing any work that Lewandowski had assigned before leaving.
One of the complaints brought up by EMCC student Katherine Parker in her radio interview was that the class under Lewandowski was highly disorganized, and that students were often unsure about both the details of assignments and Lewandowski’s grading scheme.
After receiving Lewandowski’s feedback email, Parker met with EMCC Dean of Academics Lynn Hunter, advocating for the professor’s dismissal due to her unprofessional conduct, though Parker still remained doubtful that there would be disciplinary action.
This is not the first time that Lewandowski has been absent from her class due to political issues — according to emails obtained by the Maine Wire, Lewandowski canceled class after the 2024 election, claiming that she was too upset about Donald Trump winning to teach, or to even “communicate in any way, shape, or form.”
Describing the woe of Trump’s electoral victory as akin to a “death in the family,” the 30-year EMCC professor offered in an email to her students a grave prediction that “the US is going to lose its glorious democracy, its stately presidency (again), its constitution, its global respect, its civil rights, its guiding light, its compassion for others, its respect for ‘facts’, and just our sense of humanity.”
“If you cannot respect my depression, despair, and general disgust, I think you are limited in your scope of ‘professionalism.’ I was grieving for our country. And I still am,” Lewandowski wrote.
