Glenn E. Meyer said:
And what is the legal agency that bars folks from seeking employment forever based on some silly action?
Since this is a civil rights forum - is such a suggestion congruent with civil rights?
For example, Alberto Gonzales is not able to find employment based on his performance as A.G. for the Bush administration. However, should some governmental agency bar him from ever being employed or should the free market of employers be able to decide whether to hire him?
Excellent point, Glenn.
However, lawyers are a bit of a special case: for Mr. Gonzales and his cohorts, such as John Yoo), the answer to the question, "
Could some agency bar him from ever being employed?" is -- yes. Mr. Yoo, and others, have been under investigation by the Justice Department ethics office for some time (IIRC their report is done, but the DOJ is sitting on it), and one possible outcome of this investigation involves referrals to state bar associations, which do have the power to apply sanctions for ethics violations, up to and including disbarment, which won't keep them from working at McDonald's, but as lawyers, they'd be toast. And it has been suggested that in Mr. Yoo's case, this would probably also lead to his losing his tenured faculty job, as well.
As far as I know, there's no equivalent oversight agency for academics.. at least there wasn't when I was one... just as well, probably.
Double Naught Spy said:
More than likely, the prof reported to the police about a potentially troubled student, accurate or not, but that may actually have been the prof's view of the situation.
Agreed. And given the Virginia Tech case, and other school/college shootings in which no one noticed that the perpetrators may have been behaving strangely before the fact, perhaps a professor's erring on the side of caution shouldn't provoke too much outrage on our part.