According to testimony in the case of a Florida Atlantic University professor who was fired after it was revealed that he was a promoter of a conspiracy theory that the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting was faked, a school official worried about the safety of the professor who refused to back off in the face of threats.
According to the Palm Beach Post, FAU Vice Provost Diane Alperin told a federal jury that the school would not have fired Dr. James Tracy if he had simply filled out a form informing them on his conspiracy theory blog Memory Hole.
Tracy is now attempting to be reinstated at the university as well as seeking back pay and an unspecified damages.
In 2015, Tracy taunted the parents of one of the 20 elementary children gunned down in the elementary school massacre, taunting them on Facebook by calling them “conspirators” who have profited “handsomely from the fake death of their son.”
An uproar over Tracy's attack led to his firing, however now school officials are saying he was dismissed for refusing to fill out the paperwork detailing any outside work.
According to Alperin's testimony, all university faculty members are required to disclose any outside paid work, and Tracey was pressed to update his info after a school official discovered that a professor in the school’s engineering department had been doing outside work helping another organization apply for grants.
At that time, Halperin claimed that the university was swept up in the wave of bad press over Tracy's conspiracy theories and prominence as a Sandy Hook truther.
Alperin stated the university was deluged with thousands of emails from around the world threatening Tracy and demanding his ouster after he was exposed and the story went viral
According to Alperin, university officials were concerned for Tracy’s safety, adding that his refusal to comply caught them by surprise.
“I don’t know, he didn’t react as if he was terribly concerned, but that just may be the way he responds,” Alperin admitted.
