A psychology instructor at Orange Coast College told her class that the election of Donald Trump was “an act of terrorism,” which she blamed on the Electoral College. She also said she felt “better” upon reflecting that liberals, like her, “are the majority.”
The video, which was recorded and posted to YouTube by one of her students, was posted to the Facebook page of the school’s Republican Club, which they followed up with a complaint.
According to the Orange County Register, the teacher was identified as Olga Perez Stable Cox, and she addressed students in her popular human sexuality class. In the video, she stated, “our nation is divided. We have been assaulted.”
It’s an act of terrorism. One of the most frightening things for me, and most people in my life, is that the people committing the assault are among us. It is not some stranger from some other country coming in and attacking our sense of what it means to be an American and the things that we stands for. And that makes it more painful.
She said, “We are way beyond Republicans and Democrats and we are really back to being in civil war. And I don’t mean it in a fighting way. But our nation is divided, clearly as it was in Civil War times.” Cox then added, “We are the majority. More of us voted to not have that kind of leadership. And we didn’t win because of the way our Electoral College is set up. But we are the majority and that’s helping me to feel better.”
One of the students can be seen turning around and asking another, “When does the marijuana pop come into effect?”
Attorney Shawn Steel filed a complaint, in the form of a letter with Orange Coast College, on behalf of the schools’ College Republicans on November 30. In his letter, Steel made three demands: that Cox take “take an anger management course that’s monitored, because sometime they lie on this stuff, that she formally apologize to all the students in this class, and to have college faculty send a letter that all faculty be respectful to students.”
In an interview with Breitbart News, Steel said, “This has gone on [at] thousands of American campuses and tens of thousands of classrooms … We finally had a smoking gun with the recording of this teacher. She’s been doing this for 30 years and has never been spotlighted like this before.”
He said that by “using her power as a teacher, and controlling the grades, she stifles dissent,” and is using her mantle of power “to basically scare and shame students.” Steel added, “She’s insulting about half the class. Either she is seeking to insult them directly, or she is so out of touch that she can’t believe reality and lives in a typical liberal cocoon.”
Steel suggested that “every student who loves freedom should arm themselves with a fully-charged smart phone and video tape crazy professors. It’s a free speech right. The administrators are threatening the student” who recorded the video.
According to the Orange County Register, the union that represents Cox defended her and said any students involved in the recording violated school and state codes and could be punished. Orange Coast College is a public community college.
Steel noted that, legally, the school could prohibit an outsider from recording, and that if a student does that without permission they could be subjected to administrative sanction. However, if the school attempted to do that to the student, Steel said he would sue.
The Register notes that Rob Schneiderman, president of the Coast Federation of Educators, AFT 1911, which represents the school’s faculty, has a different perspective on the incident.
“This faculty member is known for her open and engaging ways in class, open to all sides of the issues,” Schneiderman told the Register. “It’s unfortunate that this student chose to not engage in an open dialogue, which she encourages.”
Other recent incidents against Republicans on Orange Coast College’s campus include the Vice President of the Feminist club — who happens to be a man — ripping apart a sign supporting President-elect Donald Trump at the OCC Republicans’ booth:
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