Generally, tweeting isn’t a good idea unless it is epically funny. One bad thing would be to sub-tweet hateful things to your professors.
The student at The University of Alabama at Huntsville, who goes by Garret Ake had followed his genetics professor, Dr. Eric Mendenhall.
I graduated from UAH in 2012, I promise y’all we are not all this stupid.
Ake tweeted that his teacher is a faggot. Mendenhall responded appropriately:
I don't condone use of that term, & it has no bearing on my ability to teach you genetics @g_ake68. See you Thursday pic.twitter.com/NzoK1ax3at
— Eric Mendenhall (@e__mendenhall) August 23, 2016
This has gone viral because of the teacher’s epic response. Mendenhall said:
“I don’t condone use of that term, & it has no bearing on my ability to teach you genetics. See you Thursday.”
People praised him for the restraint he showed:
Thankfully, virtually all students @UAHuntsville have been wonderful last 3 yrs. @naomiattar @UAHWaddell
— Eric Mendenhall (@e__mendenhall) August 23, 2016
Mendenhall said that his other students have been nice to him, so that’s good. The professor also had a great response for the people saying that we should blame the student’s parents:
.@UncleRee1 @janewordsmith each generation shedding some of the hate and bigotry of their parents generation is a key part of being human
— Eric Mendenhall (@e__mendenhall) August 24, 2016
Mendenhall replied to that question with:
“… Each generation shedding some of the hate and bigotry of their parents generation is a key part of being human.”
The student has learned his lesson and made his account private. Hopefully, he learned his lesson about ridiculing his teachers. It has gotten over 30,000 shares and likes.
Dr Eric Mendenhall got his PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Minnesota in 2006. His biography says:
“The goal of our lab is to define the function of the non-coding genome, the mere 99% of the mammalian genome that does not directly code for a protein. Our work focuses on: (i) the identification and functional characterization of candidate distal enhancers, and their associated chromatin states; (ii) combined computational and molecular approaches to uncover the importance of the underlying DNA sequence in establishing chromatin or DNA methylation states; (iii) the therapeutic potential of locus specific epigenome modifications, using the CFTR locus (found mutated in patients with Cystic Fibrosis) as one therapeutically relevant target locus.”
Here is a video of other professors reading mean tweets:
Featured image from EACH/Educational Action Challenging Homophobia.
