Before posting John Bonnell's extended response to my question about what it is like to be teaching under the burden of imminent potential firing for any remark that may offend any student in his classes, I want to post statements from two of his students. The first is an email I got today from a woman student currently taking a world literature course from Bonnell:

I am an older student, 39 yrs of age and I have had 20 yrs experience in business. I find John Bonnell to be a fabulous teacher, always pushing the envelope to create an environment where the "norm" is not necessarily the healthiest vision. How can we read the works of Euripides and not discuss sex and the views of the Euripedes time in comparison to today? I am thankful for an honest, probing professor, that speaks of words not to offend but to enlighten. Why do we believe the way we believe? Many young adults are being brought up in a "politically correct" culture and to our discredit as a society, we are raising "intolerant" adults, not the hopeful "tolerant" adults. Many people get so ruffled by the slightest sexual conotation or jest....

I love John Bonnell's teaching style and look forward to the possibilities that evolve with each class....

thank you for your work and your defense of free speech.

My name is Julie Sergel, and I am here today to address the Board regarding the new ìUnlawful Harrassmentî policy and the suspension of John Bonnell.

There is very little to say that hasn't been said to you before, so I will tell you of my personal experiences, with Professor Bonnell and with Education in general. I spent 2 years at MCC before transferring to Wayne State and graduating Magna Cum Laude with a degree in English and Education. My first B in a long line of A's for English was earned in my first class with Prof. Bonnell. It was a great challenge to change my way of thinking from high school to college level. It did not happen overnight but I credit it happening at all to Professor Bonnell. As a student in his later classes, as my intellectual confidence rose, also much to his credit, Prof. Bonnell and I had more than one disagreement on literary interpretation. Yet every disagreement was met with open ears, an open mind, and most of all, respect - respect for the fact that different people have different opinions and should be free to express them without fear of scorn, dismissal or penalty. This man who is being kept from the classroom, whose language and attitudes have been attacked as being dangerous and derisive, has apparently maintained a higher integrity than the administration of this college, which has taken every opportunity to attempt to discredit, admonish, and vilify Prof. Bonnell while ignoring the barrage of students and members of the community who have stepped up to defend this teacher and have made appeal after appeal to keep Bonnell in the classroom where he belongs.

As much as my words are meant to support Prof. Bonnell, my primary purpose here is to speak in defense of myself and future MCC students. The recent passing of the speech code in March, in direct and utter conflict with that passed in 1995, has left me shocked and appalled. Having worked in public schools for 3 years, I have abided by the rampant censorship currently overtaking public education, under the guise that underage students must be protected from speech and ideas. I have waited patiently and hopefully for the day that I could complete graduate school and move on to higher education, a place where academic freedom reigned and words and ideas were not suppressed and feared. My dream is dying with every day that adult students are being oppressed under a ludicrous policy that forbids them to speak or hear a word, phrase or idea that someone may deem offensive, regardless of the context, situation, intention, or purpose. I am an adult and a woman, a voter and a taxpayer, a teacher and a lifelong student, and, above all, an American. As all of these things, I am deeply offended by the assertion that I must be protected from so-called ìoffensive languageî. This is not high school. I am not a child, nor is anyone who attends this college. Voltaire said, "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it." Hundreds of thousands of Americans have fought and died to assure that our freedoms are maintained. Thousands of students have been fortunate enough to have Prof. Bonnell as their teacher. Scores of students have come to you or the administration, written and even protested, urging you to support Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech. TWO students have filed complaints. Bonnell does not offend, he educates and enlightens. However, to the students who do take offense at his teaching style I say: I welcome every opportunity to speak my mind. I value the freedom to learn and read and speak and hear anything. Therefore, I welcome the chance that I may be offended. One moment, one hour, one semester of discomfort - is insignificant when compared to a lifetime of oppression, intolerance, and ignorance. Thank you.

I haven't taken Bonnell's classes. But, with one exception, neither have the people weighing in on this case over at Invisible Adjunct's comments section. I have, however, seen false and distorted accusation at work, and I have personally witnessed--not to mention experienced--the way students can use vicious rumor and disingenuous misreporting of fact to damage the reputations of professors they have decided they want to harm. It's a hazard of teaching, where no one but students themselves knows what happens in a teacher's classroom (this makes a teacher's colleagues both unable and unwilling to defend him against false accusations). And it's a phenomenon that has only grown worse--indeed, been institutionally ratified--by just the sorts of harassment policies Bonnell's complainants have found so strategically useful.

The commenters at Invisible Adjunct who note that academic freedom is not a license to do or say anything and everything in the classroom are right. But it is worth noting that Bonnell's staunchest defenders are his students, that many of them are women, and that their defense of him is not that of blind adherence to an abstract pedagogical principle, but of principled appreciation for the way Bonnell creates and maintains a classroom atmosphere that they have found uniquely inspiring, educational, and intellectually sustaining. I find such testimonials extraordinarily credible, particularly because they come at a time when Bonnell-bashing has become a kind of institutional sport at Macomb Community College. If accusations of the sort that have been levelled at Bonnell are rare, statements like Julie Sergel's are more so. They should not be taken less seriously than the accusations simply because they are less sensational.