BLACK Immigrant Chaplain Says Christian College Used Bogus TIX Investigation To Fire Him
A professor’s race heavily factored into his firing on the grounds of making racially and sexually insensitive comments, according to his attorney. Wheaton College, known informally as the Harvard of evangelical colleges, dismissed Chaplain Tim Blackmon. The 50-year-old black immigrant from the Netherlands has vigorously disputed the allegations against him, stating that “they are a complete misconstrual of the comments” he made.
“To be clear, I was completely blind-sided by this Title IX investigation,” Blackmon said via his attorney, Andrew Miltenberg. “I recently learned this was the second time this individual filed a Title IX against me,” the first one occurring in 2017 after Blackmon had “shared five theological articles that the complainant [accuser] deemed ideologically problematic.” Wheaton’s Title IX office didn’t investigate at the time, “as it was a clear misuse of the Title IX investigative process,” the chaplain continued. But in the most recent complaint, he said that “several of my comments have been taken completely out of their factual and, in some cases, religious context.”
Blackmon emphasized that no one accused him of “flirtation, inappropriate relationships, sexual misconduct or any sexual action towards anyone,” and neither the accuser nor “any witness, communicated offense or discomfort.”
Miltenberg also suspects that “Wheaton may have overreacted out of fear of public pressure given the #MeToo movement and other Title IX related controversies as of late”: Wheaton has repeatedly shifted the landscape in Chaplain Blackmon’s case, at times claiming it was Title IX issue, and other times, suggesting that the situation did not fall under Title IX.
This shifting has impeded Blackmon’s ability to appropriately respond to the allegations as well as “denying him the right to counsel,” Miltenberg said. The college has also ignored its own “employee conflict resolution procedures.” Its actions “have put Chaplain Blackmon’s future very much at risk.”
thecollegefix.com-Henry Kokkeler
