from the Charleston Gazette:

August 09, 2007

Teacher says he was fired for criticizing UC, not sex
Student-teacher relationships common, man says

By James I. Davison
Staff writer

A popular University of Charleston administrator and teacher, who says he was fired last month for having sex with students, claims student-teacher relationships are common practice and he was singled out because he criticized the school.

J. Wayne “Jimmy” Jones, 39, who worked at UC for about three years, posted an entry on his blog Wednesday afternoon with information about his firing, his admitted relationships with students — one of whom he had a child with — as well as several accusations against the private university and its academic programs.

Student-teacher relationships at UC “happened before and will happen again,” he said in an interview with the Gazette. “It’s unfortunate. It shouldn’t happen, but it happens all the time.”

“They did allow one student to stay with a previous professor in university housing for nearly a year,” he added.

The university denied most of what Jones wrote in his blog, as well as his comment that administrators tolerate relationships between students and teachers.

“What I can tell you is that the university did dismiss professor Jones and that I’m not able to get into the specifics of why he was dismissed — beyond what he has already set forth in his blog,” said UC lawyer Kevin Carr.

A provision in the employee manual “strictly prohibits any type of amorous relationships” between students and staff, he said.

“Under no circumstances does this university tolerate any relationships” between faculty and students, Carr said.

Jones said university officials first told him about an investigation into allegations of multiple student relationships on July 13, and that he was fired four days later.

He believes, however, that the decision to fire him was the result of months of internal criticisms about the school, not inappropriate student relationships. Jones’ criticisms range from low admission rates of pre-pharmacy students into the UC School of Pharmacy to a university decision to close its interior design program without telling incoming students.

nes heard rumors, he says, that he was going to be fired long before he was told of an investigation in mid-July. He plans to file a civil lawsuit against UC for wrongful termination.

“They told me I was fired because they had concluded I was having relationships with multiple students,” he said. “I do not believe it was strictly about the relationships.

“I believe it was a justification for getting rid of me,” he said. “I had made a lot of people unhappy out there with my internal criticisms.”

Carr denied this, saying the first he heard about Jones’ complaints were from his blog entry, which was posted Wednesday afternoon.

“I can tell you that is wholly untrue,” he said of the claims. “The first time I read about any of this stuff [criticisms against UC] was when I read the blog an hour or so ago.”

Carr added that Jones’ statements about the UC pre-pharmacy students and interior design program are inaccurate and “very harmful” to the university, faculty and students.

Jones also says the method in which he was removed from his job was unusual within the academic field. Once they told him he was fired, they gave him a few minutes to gather items in his office and had Charleston Police escort him off campus, he said. Carr denied that police escorted Jones off campus.

“I was never warned,” Jones said.