Palm Beach Atlantic professor fired after complaints of 'indoctrination'
Professor Sam Joeckel has been a professor at PBAU for more than 20 years. And for more than a decade he’s used racial justice as one of the topics students could choose for a writing project. Now his job is on the line because a parent complained. (WPEC)
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — A veteran Palm Beach Atlantic University professor who was worried about getting fired after a parent complained about his lectures has been let go after 20 years on the job.
Sam Joeckel’s bosses told him last month a parent complained about a couple of lectures on racial justice in his English Composition class.
And even though PBA administrators approved this same syllabus for the class every semester for a decade, they’ve now given him a pink slip.
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“It won't be the same without him and it feels like the number of safe people that were on this campus has definitely dwindled," said Aaliyah Hirt, a former student of Professor Joeckel.
PBA students Hirt and Lee Ritter were not happy to hear professor Sam Joeckel had been let go.
“We walked up to his classroom on a Friday and saw an official PBA sign that this class doesn’t meet today," said Lee Ritter.
Joeckel told CBS12 News his job was in jeopardy because one of the topics his English composition students had the option to write about, was racial justice in America.
He gave a couple of lectures about it every semester. And even though PBA is a private Christian university, Joeckel believes his firing is a result of the ‘anti-woke’ movement championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In February, school administrators told professor Joeckel a parent complained he was indoctrinating students.
"In the twelve years that I’ve been teaching the racial justice unit, not once has any PBA administrator expressed concerns about my racial justice unit," said Joeckel.
PBA also clearly states on its website, the school prides itself on celebrating diverse backgrounds.
"Just having that with no closure and no cut-off and no end-of-the-year goodbye to him, felt like a really big blow from the university," said Ritter.
"No doubt in my mind now that this is not the open campus I thought it was," added Hirt.
Joeckel has hired an attorney. That lawyer tells CBS12 News they still have not been told why their client's contract was not renewed.
We reached out to the school for answers, they would only say they have no comment on pending litigation.
