College Cuts Ties With Professor For Allegedly Saying Otto Warmbier 'Got Exactly What He Deserved'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS)--A once adjunct professor at the University of Delaware will not be asked to return after comments she made online went viral, prompting a swift and fierce backlash across the country.
"'Are you kidding me?' That's what I thought," said Arnov Sinha, a teaching assistant at the school.
Last week, Kathy Dettwyler, who taught anthropology at the university, wrote on her Facebook page in part: "Is it wrong of me to think that Otto Warmbier got exactly what he deserved?"
She added that others should give thought to North Koreans living under the repressive government, questioning: "Just because they are North Koreans, not U.S. citizens, we shouldn't care about them?"
She went on to blame Warmbier's parents for teaching him to think he could "get away with whatever he wanted" and also wrote about the entitlement of "young, white, rich, clueless males" in her own classes, who "cry about their grades, because they didn't think they'd really have to read and study the material to get a good grade."
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"I'm a teaching assistant. It's kind of upsetting. I would never do that to my students," Sinha said.
Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, had been imprisoned for 17 months in North Korea for reportedly trying to steal a propaganda poster there.
He recently died due to a severe brain injury from unknown causes six days after being returned to the United States in a coma.
"Personally, I think her comments were inappropriate, but I would defend her right to say them. It was on her private Facebook account; it had nothing to do with the University," said Kevin Tierney, a senior at the University of Delaware. "She was allowed to post on her private Facebook page and I think the school's kinda giving into public outcry."
But university officials said late Sunday night they would not be rehiring Dettwyler in the future.
In a previous statement, the university said quote, "we condemn any and all messages that endorse hatred and convey insensitivity toward a tragic event such as the one that Otto Warmbier and his family suffered."
David Feller took Dettwyler's anthropology class in the fall.
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"It's their choice at the end of the day but I'd like to see her stay because she's a really good professor," Feller said.
Some believe the controversy over Dettwyler's comments is overshadowing a tragedy.
"At the end of the day, there's a kid who passed away and I think that's more important than anything else," Tierney said.
Dettwyler told Eyewitness News she and her family are receiving death threats and as a result declined to make a statement.
"I think it's wildly inappropriate," Tierney said, in response to death threats made against Dettwyler. "There's no reason for a civilized people to do or say things like that."