Students gather support for professor

Deirdre Newman

OCC CAMPUS -- Students are circulating a petition on campus in support

of a political science professor who has been put on temporary leave

after allegedly calling a Muslim student a terrorist.

Professor Kenneth Hearlson was temporarily removed from teaching last

week after the incident.

Administration officials announced Thursday that the school has hired

a lawyer from the Orange County Department of Education to conduct an

impartial investigation that could result in Hearlson returning to the

classroom or being fired.

But the students who are fighting to have him reinstated are not

content to wait until the investigation is complete. About 10 are

circulating petitions in their political science classes to present to

the administration in support of bringing Hearlson back to the classroom.

And they are passionate in their defense of Hearlson’s prerogative to

express his opinions.

“We just wanted the [administration] to know that we want him as a

teacher,” freshman Bassan Al-Haik said. “We need more people like him to

speak out his opinions of the country.”

The controversial incident happened in Hearlson’s political science

class last week during a debate about Israel and Arab nations.

During the discussion, Hearlson allegedly pointed to Muslim student

Mooath Saidi and said: “It was you who drove two planes into the World

Trade Center. You are a terrorist.”

Saidi and three other Muslim students complained to administration

officials, who immediately put Hearlson on paid administrative leave

until the investigation is finished.

Hearlson declined to comment about the incident.

Saidi, 18 -- along with CC Abdelmuti, 20; Zayneb Saidi, 20; and Ramsey

Nashef, 18 -- all filed the complaint with the administration after the

class.

“We want the teacher to be fired,” Mooath Saidi said. “There were 200

to 300 people in the class. They’re probably not informed. For him to

pollute their minds and turn 200 to 300 people against us. . . . You come

to school, to a safe environment to learn. He didn’t even open a book. It

is a three-hour class and this is all he discussed.”

Mooath Saidi said that when Abdelmuti tried to correct Hearlson,

saying that was just one group of students, not all Muslims, Hearlson

responded, “Muslims are terrorists. That is what they’re made of. Look at

what they did.”

Abdelmuti and Mooath Saidi said Hearlson repeatedly insisted that what

he was saying were all facts.

Other students from the class paint a different picture of what

happened.

“He never once said that those students were terrorists, he was

talking about the real ones on the plane,” said Lisa Addeo, 19.

Addeo said she felt that what Hearlson was teaching was factual.

“It’s just a fact that a lot of these acts were claimed by Muslims,”

she said. “When he was saying, ‘I don’t trust them,’ I think he was

talking about the Taliban and [Osama] bin Laden. All he talks about are

his Arab friends. I don’t think he means Muslims as a whole. The beauty

of this class is that this is the one class I know of on campus that lets

everyone speak their views.”

The point of the class, another student said, is not to make the

students comfortable.

“We’re in the form of higher learning . . . and I think a teacher’s

job is not to make you comfortable, but to challenge you in your thinking

and make you believe what is right and wrong,” Happy Bushra said.

Mooath Saidi, however, said the students circulating the petition are

not considering the bigger picture. Hearlson made a mistake and should

pay the price, he said.

“The only thing that will work is for him not to be teaching anymore,”

he said. “What he says in class, you take it for a lifetime. When he says

Muslims are terrorists, it sticks in everyone’s heads.”

Jim Carnett, the college’s spokesman, said the students have the right

to circulate a petition, but the investigation would be better served by

their taking part in an interview or submitting a document about their

recollections and opinions of the incident.

Carnett said the administration would like to resolve the controversy

as soon as possible.

To help open up discussions, the college will present a panel of

speakers dealing with issues relating to terrorism and religion during

Tuesday’s political science class.

* Deirdre Newman covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .