Case Closed: USC Dismisses Complaints Against Professor Who Condemned Hamas
Prof. Strauss: “I hope this outcome will serve as a reminder to universities across the country that professors have a right to free speech both inside and outside the classroom.”
The University of Southern California has dismissed the complaints against economics Professor John Strauss over anti-Hamas comments he made at a pro-Palestine campus protest last November, the LA Times reports.
We covered the controversy over Strauss’s verbal clash with the demonstrators here.
Strauss, who said he heard the protesters at the November 9 rally shout “death to Israel,” told them they were all “really ignorant.” “Hamas are murderers,” he went on to say as he walked back from class. “That’s all they are. Every one of them should be killed, and I hope they all are.”
Strauss says his remarks were misrepresented in an online video that went viral that omitted his reference to Hamas, giving the impression he had called for the death of all Palestinians:
here is @USC professor John Strauss saying “every one of them should be killed, and I hope they all are” while passing by students who organised a memorial for 10,000+ Palestinian martyrs killed in the past month pic.twitter.com/Iuox2laMKL
— tara (@taraxrh) November 10, 2023
But an unedited version of Strauss’s exchange with the protesters was captured and posted at Annenberg Media. It includes his initial reference to Hamas—and puts his words back in their true context:
That context didn’t matter to the campus mob that coalesced to cancel Strauss the same day. What mattered is that he dared to challenge the protesters’ attack on the Jewish State. Within hours of the rally, students reportedly filed multiple complaints against him for discrimination and hate speech. And the next day, a student group filed a petition to terminate him.
USC then banned Strauss from campus for the rest of the semester, relegating him to teaching on Zoom. Though the school allowed him to return to school in December, he remained under investigation for discrimination and harassment over his remarks, an investigation that finally concluded last week, as reported in the LA Times:
USC administrators informed Strauss on Tuesday that the case against him was closed, the complaints by students would be dismissed and that he will face no formal discipline, according to the professor and his attorney.
…
Summarizing the probe’s findings, [Strauss’s lawyer] said USC determined it had insufficient evidence that he was deliberately targeting any student and that his words — uttered in the span of less than a minute — didn’t create a hostile environment.
But while Strauss’s ordeal is officially over, his lawyer, Samantha Harris, told the paper she was “’frustrated that it took seven months to reach an obvious conclusion’ that Strauss did not engage in harassment or discrimination”:
“This was an exchange of opinions in a public area of campus on an issue of public concern that rose nowhere near to the level of conduct that constitutes harassment, which is severe, pervasive and persistent,” said Harris, referencing the formal criteria for evaluating harassment.
Although Strauss won’t face sanction by the university, his lawyer said that the length of the probe has been its own form of punishment.
“Living under a cloud for seven months is not nothing, and it has a chilling effect broadly speaking on faculty’s willingness to express themselves on matters of public concern,” Harris said.
It also bespeaks a double standard for Jewish students and faculty, says USC Professor Anna Krylov, a coordinator for a networking group called “Circle Against Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism at USC.” In a recent post for the group, she asks:
What about the miscreants who doctored videos of Professor Strauss’ encounter with the protesters, launched the vicious social media campaign against him, doxxed him and flooded his email with threats, and lodged frivolous and false complaints against him? What is their punishment?
Krylov told me she believes Strauss deserves an apology. “I am disappointed that USC did not use this case to affirm their commitment to free speech and to USC’s Unified Values,” she said.
Meanwhile, maybe (just maybe), other schools will start paying attention. For his part, Strauss hopes that his vindication “will serve as a reminder to universities across the country that professors have a right to free speech both inside and outside the classroom.”
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Backpay and punitive damages, I hope.
So the Hamasholes do far worse, and they get wrist slaps??
Students who made claims should be expelled. Both the university and students should be sued. Students conduct was malicious.
Death to Israel isn’t hate speech?
There’s no such thing as “hate speech”. He was falsely accused of telling the students that they should be killed, which would have violated the university’s speech code; likewise telling Jewish students that they should be killed would do that. But calling for Israel’s destruction, or that of the “Palestinians” in Gaza, isn’t directed at any member of the university community.
What back pay? He was paid the whole time. He deserves an official vindication, and action against his false accusers, but not back pay.
So it’s okay to criticize Hamas now?
If you don’t mind being harassed, sidelined, and investigated for several months.
It was always OK, but if you do you risk Hamas supporters beating you up, either literally or figuratively. Because they’re terrorists, and that’s what they do.
The lesson is that it helps to talk fast in order to avoid creating an environment hostile to a murderous mob.
DOJ may put Strauss on the no-fly list as a possible domestic terrorist. An IRS audit is on the way.
he is a stud amongst fluffers
“This was an exchange of opinions in a public area of campus on an issue of public concern…”
Exactly. It’s not like he let loose an anti-Hamas tirade in the middle of an economics class – he was engaging people who were conducting themselves in a manner that invited a response. (This is America, were no one is permitted a monopoly on an opinion about any matter.) Arguably, his “harassment” was no different than the conduct of the pro-Hamas protestors. They condemn themselves with their complaints about the professor. At least he was espousing a personal opinion, and not parroting lies and encouraging (actual) genocide.
When I was in fourth grade, the teacher, Sister Collette, left the classroom for a minute, asking me (in everyone’s hearing) to take notes of any misbehavior I might observe.
I forget what prompted it, but one of the more mischievous kids in the class got to clowning around and at one point he Groucho-walked up to me, shook his finger in my face and said, “Shape up!”
Playing along, I retorted, “Or ship out?”
Somebody in the class chose to report that what I had said had ended in a consonant other than P, and Sister Collette told me to stay after class to explain myself.
I had to wait around all day to get the chance to tell my side of the story, and when the time come she seemed to have completely forgotten what I’d been accused of. I was left with the impression she had subjected me to all that stress for no other reason than to appease the mob.
My attitude toward authority was never the same.
For me it was about a nun a question, her response was lay my hand on the desk, and then hit it with a ruler. Both drop off and dismissal involved traffic jams. A person in a pickup who was a janitor backed in the front of our car, when the police came the nuns claimed my father rear ended the janitor.
All bureaucracies evolve to protect their own provincial interests, including churches.
The process was the punishment.
Where does he go to get his reputation back?
Court, where he should sue the school and students.
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