Bruce Fleming, a civilian English professor at the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, has filed a lawsuit claiming he was denied a pay raise due to an unjust reprimand he received in 2014:

Attorneys for Bruce Fleming said Thursday that the professor was denied merit pay and $7,000 in summer funding based on a 2014 reprimand. It stemmed from a 2013 classroom discussion, when Fleming prompted his students to consider the academy’s sexual assault program and the potentially one-sided burdens it put on men, at a time when the academy was part of the national debate over how to stop sexual assault in the military.

Fleming asserts his words were protected under the Constitution. For its part, Annapolis appears to focus on an accusation Fleming opened investigations against two Midshipmen in retaliation for their complaints against him. Still, Annapolis reportedly said of Fleming that

Academic freedom does not afford a faculty member the right to use the classroom as a bully pulpit for his or her own social, cultural, and political views unconnected to the course material.

Though somewhat more subtly, that was arguably the same issue that got a USAFA English professor — Edie Disler — removed from her position, after she invited homosexual alumni to address her class (even before the repeal of DADT), resulting in complaints from her cadets.  Disler announced her own homosexuality after she retired shortly thereafter — at which point she joined the board of Michael “Mikey” Weinstein’s “charity”.

The Associated Press reported Fleming has been a USNA professor for nearly 30 years. Apparently, he has been a frequent and long-running critic of his own employer.

On a completely unrelated note, one of his critiques was that the USNA inflated its acceptance rate by counting virtually any interest in its pool of applicants. In other words, Annapolis might have counted Ben Carson, even if he never formally applied…

ADVERTISEMENT