School Dumps Professor Over Otto Warmbier Rant

Kathy Dettwyler will not be rehired at University of Delaware
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 26, 2017 7:29 AM CDT
School Reacts to Professor's Rant on Otto Warmbier
American student Otto Warmbier is seen in Pyongyang, North Korea on March 16, 2016.   (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin, File)

A University of Delaware professor is out of a job after claiming Otto Warmbier "got exactly what he deserved." Adjunct anthropology professor Kathy Dettwyler, 62, who recently finished up a spring contract at the school, "will not be rehired to teach at the university in the future," the school said Sunday after Dettwyler ranted against Warmbier in a Facebook post last Wednesday, reports Delaware News Journal. Dettwyler said Warmbier—a University of Virginia student who died after a year as a prisoner in North Korea, where he was convicted of stealing a poster—was a "spoiled, naive, arrogant, US college student" who "got exactly what he deserved."

Dettwyler went on to blame Warmbier's parents for teaching him that he "could get away with whatever he wanted," per the University of Delaware Review. Parents afterward vowed to keep their kids from attending the school if Dettwyler was a staff member, while students accused Dettwyler of promoting her political beliefs during teaching. For example, she once wrote an exam question that stated President Trump had expressed "cultural beliefs that are diametrically opposed" to the ideals on which the United States was founded. Dettwyler told the Review it was "part of my job" to "lead the students through an analysis of the underlying cultural beliefs" reflected in Trump's comments. (More Otto Warmbier stories.)

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