In January 2020, Dutchess Community College in New York banned a photography professor named Lowell Handler from its property and declared him unqualified to continue teaching there.
Handler was accused of touching students inappropriately. But the professor, a sufferer of Tourette Syndrome, claimed his advances were the unwanted result of his disorder. How do we square protecting students with protecting the disabled? This week, Barry Yeomanwaded into the question by telling Handler’s story.
We want to ensure harassment-free climates in schools and workplaces, and we want to protect the rights of people with disabilities. What happens when these imperatives collide?
If Biden cares about what he calls the white supremacist “poison…running through our body politic,” his administration had better get busy purging the strain that courses through the ranks of law enforcement.