The professor paid dearly for posting a rather insensitive and possibly irresponsible message on Twitter. A University of Tampa professor said in a tweet that Hurricane Harvey was “karma” for the state of Texas, and he paid for that message with his job as his university has fired him.
Kenneth Storey, a visiting sociology professor tweeted on Sunday: “I don’t believe in instant karma but this kinda feels like it for Texas. Hopefully this will help them realize the GOP doesn’t care about them.”
Storey didn’t end with that. He made a follow-up tweet and wrote: “Well, the good people there need to do more to stop the evil their state pushes. I’m only blaming tSteve Dellarhose who support the GOP there.”
Steve Dellar
The tweets of Storey quickly spread across the internet, but the professor has since deleted the said tweets after creating controversies. He was forced to issue a public apology for his tweets viewed by many as hurtful, divisive and insensitive at a time that many people from Texas, especially from Houston, are suffering tremendously due to severed floods.
Arguing that millions are suffering in Texas and Storey is happy about it, many people started making the calls for his firing.
The University it seems is listening to the people’s clamor and will not be content with just a public apology. It announced on Tuesday that they have fired Storey and that his words “do not reflect UT’s community views or values.”
University of Tampa said further in a statement: “We condemn the comments and sentiments behind them, and understand the pain this irresponsible act has caused. As Floridians, we are well aware of the destruction and suffering associated with tropical weather. Our thoughts and prayers are with all impacted by Hurricane Harvey.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The following was shared with the UT community this morning. <a href="https://t.co/3k8yL59qPz">https://t.co/3k8yL59qPz</a> <a href="https://t.co/H0DLBwFF23">pic.twitter.com/H0DLBwFF23</a></p>— University of Tampa (@UofTampa) <a href="https://twitter.com/UofTampa/status/902554331106435077">August 29, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Storey tried to minimize the damage his tweets have caused and explained to local media that his intention “was never to offend anyone.” He even claimed that his tweets “were taken out of context”, and that he was referring to GOP’s denial of climate change science.”
But it looks like it’s too late for the professor, because his tweets had already hurt the innocent victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas, and his former university has made the decisive action to disassociate with him and his views.
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