Housatonic Community College president Dr. Paul Broadie II has announced the college has fired a business professor who allegedly compared education officials to Nazis at a faculty and administrators’ meeting by shouting in German and giving a Nazi salute for over 10 minutes.
After looking into the incident, investigators found that assistant professor Charles Meyrick committed “serious misconduct” during a Nov. 2 meeting between faculty and administrators of the Connecticut State Colleges.
“Mr. Meyrick’s actions took place just days after the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, and triggered several participants to exit the facility out of fear for their safety,” said Mark Ojakian, president of the colleges and universities system. “Our state colleges and universities aim to foster a welcoming learning environment, and these threatening actions go far beyond acceptable discourse.”
According to the investigation report, Meyrick admitted that he shouted “seig heil,” a German phrase for “hail victory” used at Nazi rallies and gave a Nazi salute from his seat during the meeting to show leaders that their efforts of silencing him was “tyrannical and wrong.”
The former Housatonic professor and a college system official got into a disagreement about consolidating curriculum, and the official asked him to leave as a result of his disruptive behavior, according to NBC Montana.
Meyrick interpreted the request to leave the meeting as leaders attempting to stop him from expressing his opinion, according to the report.
Local police were called to the scene and after the meeting ended, asked Meyrick to leave the Manchester Community College campus, where the meeting was held. Meyrick said “What if I don’t?” in response and a lieutenant told him he would be arrested.
After the communication, two police officers escorted him from the campus without incident.
