Prof’s blue language has student seeing red

North Idaho College says it is looking into complaints that an English professor offended students by discussing a deadly bestiality accident and cursing routinely during classes.

But another student in instructor Keith Hunter’s class called the complaints “ridiculous,” and said Hunter is a “great teacher” who tries to include all points of view in his classroom.

College officials said Tuesday that they can’t talk specifically about how they are investigating the complaints – which arose in news reports and have not been formalized with the college.

“But the idea that we’re not taking it seriously is absolutely not correct,” said Kent Propst, NIC spokesman.

Two students withdrew from Hunter’s colonial literature class this fall. One of the students, 67-year-old Richard Willoughby, said Hunter referred on the first day of class to a news report about a man who died last summer in Enumclaw after having sex with a horse – a story that received widespread coverage in the media and on the Internet.

Willoughby, who knew Hunter from a previous class, said the instructor then told him, ” ‘When I read this article, I thought about you, Rick.’ “

Hunter again mentioned the incident in the second class, routinely used coarse language though he knew that it offended at least one student, and was hostile to Christian viewpoints, Willoughby said.

“This man is throwing the F-word around like it’s going out of style – and I don’t have any problem with that,” said Willoughby.

But the language did bother student Stephanie Ambrosetti, he said.

“He was flat stomping on this lady’s core values – just walking all over them.”

Ambrosetti withdrew from the class after four sessions. She said she welcomes discussions about different points of view, but that Hunter’s use of vulgarity didn’t serve any purpose.

“I left feeling beat up after a class there,” she said. “I didn’t want to waste my time in a class where the teacher is not teaching us anything about the subject.”

She did not pursue a formal complaint, and said she doesn’t want Hunter to lose his job.

“I just would like Keith Hunter to change his teaching methods,” she said.

Both Willoughby and Ambrosetti said the discussions of bestiality had no bearing on the class subject.

“Half the time I don’t know how any of these topics even came up,” Ambrosetti said, “because it didn’t have anything to do with the (class).”

Hunter did not return calls seeking comment Monday and Tuesday.

But a student of his, Jim Daanen, defended Hunter’s conduct. The bestiality story was read directly from a news report, he said, and is in keeping with Hunter’s use of bizarre tales from the real world as a way of engaging students in discussions about literature and creative writing.

“I think the idea is to illustrate that truth is always stranger than fiction,” he said.

He also said that Hunter has included Bible readings in his class and that he encourages students to express dissenting points of view.

Daanen said that he has discussed this issue with the students remaining in Hunter’s class. “I believe the prevailing opinion … is that this is ridiculous,” he said.

The controversy was first reported in the Coeur d’Alene Press on Sunday, and NIC officials said they’re frustrated that they still haven’t been contacted by anyone to register a complaint formally.

Willoughby is a retiree who is completing his associate’s degree in English. He describes himself as a conservative Republican who doesn’t attend church, and says he considers NIC a place where his views and respect for religion aren’t welcome.

He said he doesn’t want Hunter to lose his job, but he wants the college to act in some way to indicate that his behavior wasn’t proper. Willoughby, who contacted reporters with his concerns, has not filed a report with the college but thinks school officials should pursue the issue nonetheless.

On Tuesday, NIC vice president for instruction Jerry Gee, said the college was taking the concerns seriously. He said that freedom-of-speech issues often arise on campus, and college officials must try to balance the freedom of a professor to discuss the academic subject at hand with concerns for people who may have a wide range of reactions to certain subjects and language.

“The college is not ignoring this,” he said. “We’re looking into it and trying to see what happened.”