District anxious for OCC investigation results

Deirdre Newman

OCC CAMPUS -- The Coast Community College District is exerting

pressure on the investigator of a professor accused of harassment, asking

that the findings be turned over by Friday.

Political science professor Kenneth Hearlson was put on administrative

leave after allegedly harassing Muslim students during class Sept. 18.

Geraldine Jaffe, counsel for the Orange County Department of

Education, launched an independent investigation in late September.

While district officials say they are turning up the heat to attain

closure before the holiday break, Jaffe said she will not complete the

investigation until she has received another tape of the class, according

to a letter sent to the district Wednesday. When she receives the tape,

she will finish the report in the same week, the letter states.

“My review of this additional tape and transcript are important to

conducting a complete, thorough investigation which is fair to all

parties,” Jaffe wrote in the letter.

The investigation mainly focuses not on what Hearlson said in class,

but on how he said it and whether he directed his comments toward

specific students. Hearlson adamantly maintains his innocence, saying he

never targeted particular students during his tirade against Arab nations

for their violence against Israel.

Jaffe already has one class tape, provided by Hearlson’s attorney in

late October.

Jaffe contends that Hearlson’s attorney said she would send a second

tape that contains additional dialogue between Hearlson and the Muslim

students that is missing from the previous tape. Jaffe is still waiting

for the second tape, according to her letter.

Hearlson says the second tape contains less, not more, discussion and

that the tape was already sent to Jaffe. His lawyer was not available for

comment.

Hearlson also accuses Jaffe of using the tape as a stalling tactic.

She’s “using that as an excuse,” Hearlson said. “What [she’s] doing is

trying to hold up” the investigation.

The college has already come under fire from a national watchdog for

academic freedom for removing Hearlson from the classroom without a

hearing, while the Council on American-Islamic Relations is voicing

support for the Islamic students.

Jim Carnett, the college’s spokesman, said the school wants to

announce its decision on the findings to the campus community and

students by the end of the fall semester, Dec. 16.

* Deirdre Newman covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .