Breaking Ranks -- Views and Remedies from a Radical Pragmatist

Bob Woodson Blog

A Killing at the University of Alabama

02/18/2010 01:37 PM

By now everyone has heard of Amy Bishop, the University of Alabama biology professor who gunned down six of her faculty colleagues, killing three of them at an on-campus faculty meeting. Many are asking how she was hired in the first place, given her very troubled and violent past. Reports say that 18 years ago she shot her 18-year-old brother, an incident that was ruled an accident despite the fact that she discharged the gun three times and ran out of the house, where she attempted to commandeer a vehicle with the gun still in her possession. She was arrested shortly thereafter but released. A few years later she and her husband were questioned about a pipe bomb that was placed in the office of one of her Harvard professors with whom she had a disagreement. No charges were filed.

 

More time and attention is given to the screening of a minimum wage teacher’s aide working in a public school classroom than is devoted to examining the background of well-credentialed graduates of our select universities. Dr. Bishop was a Harvard-trained neurobiologist. Many people looking over the application of such a person automatically associates superior character with superior education and credentials. There is an attitude that one does not need to look any further into the fitness of such a person.

 

Some years ago I remember when the president of American University was fired after being charged with making pornographic phone calls to various women. When people at the university were asked for their reaction, the common response was: “How could he have done that? He has a PhD from Harvard!” Despite the fact that the Unabomber also had a PhD in mathematics from Harvard and a Nobel winner was an infamous international pedophile, we still cling to this mistaken notion that good character somehow always accompanies good education.

 

Our automatic association of education and credentials with character can have lethal consequences, as has been demonstrated in this case. We should not be blinded by the resume or believe that any individual should be exempt from being looked at just as critically as anyone else.