You keep using that word. I don’t think it means what you think it does….
Police reports say that Robby Burleigh, 42, and his pregnant fiancée—she’s 20— got in an argument last week over a text message he didn’t like and the fact that he doesn’t want her to have their baby. According to the fiancée, Burleigh grabbed her, threw her to the floor, pinned her down and broke her phone so, she claims, she couldn’t call for help. Then, she says, he dragged her across the floor to a safe where he keeps his gun, and said, chillingly, “You’re going to commit suicide today.”
Oh! I forgot the best part!
Burleigh teaches philosophy of religion, biomedical ethics, introduction to ethics and introduction to logic at Baton Rouge Community College, and his fiancée is a student of his. Clever ethics lesson, Professor!
Of course, a lot of this is alleged only. Domestic abuse complaints have a way of disappearing, so we can have yet another physically abusive relationship in America: this is especially true when an abused woman is facing single parenthood, and the man who beat her is really a wonderful man and just was having a bad day. Again. Or maybe this didn’t happen the way the alleged victim says it did, though the professor admits that he did break the phone and did pin the woman down on the floor (but “only to calm her down,” so that’s OK). Then there’s the fact that they are a couple and having a baby together (unless he can successfully bully her to abort it) because he used his authority and position as a teacher to cruise his class for dates, which is unprofessional behavior and an abuse of power, as well as a conflict of interest.
Knowing a lot about ethics isn’t really very impressive if you behave like this. There is, for example, the matter of integrity. Can one teach ethics if one doesn’t practice ethics or believe in ethics? Sure. Most ethics courses are about the philosophy and discipline, and aren’t designed to make ethical people, just people who know something about ethics. I could teach you a lot about baseball, but I was never much of a player myself. Nonetheless, and tell me if this seems unfair, I think a professor who behaves like this may know something about ethics, but doesn’t really understand ethics. If you understand it, you understand that it’s not just a discipline or a course credit or a job, but the right way to live.
_______________________________
Pointer: Gawker
Facts and Graphic: Times-Picayune
Ethics Alarms 
Bad ethicists are, to be frank, a plague. Mind, this guy is an entirely different _kind_ of bad than I’m used to dealing with, but that very fact leaves me wondering: Which is worse? Which deals more damage?
I’m honestly not sure what the answer is… and that scares me.
I’d submit the worst would be an ‘ethicist’ who puts on and exemplifies an apparent air of legitimacy and personally proper behavior who teaches bad ethics that ultimately corrupt because he/she is so believable.
That would be the kind I’m used to dealing with, yes.
Criminy…my iphone.
“personally proper Shavuot” should say “personally proper behavior”.
I don’t even get autocorrect sometimes…
I was afraid to ask, and feared that my unfamiliarity with the term was a “myzled” problem. Whew.
I just looked it up, its a Jewish holiday occurring at a set date after Passover to commemorate the receiving of the Ten Commandments.
So I guess its remotely related to ethics…
To reiterate: I don’t understand iPhone autocorrect sometimes. It is a treacherous beast.
So Siri is Jewish, then?
Not Orthodox, with a name like that.
That confused me as well, I will admit. Fortunately, I got the gist of what you meant through context.
On the other hand, it’s worth noting that many of these people follow what /their own, corrupted ethics/ say they should be doing or treat it like… oh, an academic subject, for lack of a better way of putting it, even when dealing with people who are immediately involved in the situation.
Peter Singer is a case in point — in one notable incident, he saw nothing wrong with inviting a notable disabled disability rights advocate to speak regarding, in essence, why she shouldn’t have been euthanized as a baby… or having his students and colleagues grill her regarding her position. (The guest speaker’s account of this is a rather well-known article which can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/16/magazine/unspeakable-conversations.html?pagewanted=all ).
Ethics is, frankly, one subject where the ivory tower is simply intolerable.
And then there are ethicists like Barnbaum. The less said there, the better.
Does Baton Rouge Community College have any ethical obligations to take certain actions regarding Burleigh’s employment?
The main reason I ask is because of something I caught a glimpse of, on O’Reilly’s program last night. Ambush interviewer Jesse Watters confronted a union boss about the union’s payment of a school teacher who has been accused of sexual abuse. I did not catch what, if anything, the school system has done regarding the teacher’s employment. The union boss gave no comment. I was left wondering what ethical obligations the union has toward the teacher. It seemed clear that O’Reilly’s position is that the union was in the wrong. The situation reminded me of the Florida State quarterback and the criminal charges against him which were dropped (I think).
Only if they want to have any credibility at all. If the allegations are shown to be correct, a college having a domestic abuser teaching ethics would be like having a tax evader teaching Accounting 101.
Or running the Federal Reserve? Sadly, that was not a hypotheical.
-Jut
Sorry, a tax cheat as SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.
-Jut
Yeah, I had big problems with that, and thought it was a bad gaffE at the time. Silly me—it was no gaffE. It was a harbinger of things to come.
Is it a gaffe to use “gaff” for “gaffe”?
No, it’s just stupid. Fixing…
Even worse.
One of the best ways to teach is by example. A tax evader could at least model creating a chart of accounts for her students. This guy can only communicate theory instead, and even at that his example will constantly undermine it.
Jack, thanks; of course I agree with your point about credibility. But, what should the CoCo do (assuming they can) in the interim, between Burleigh being charged or not being charged? Suspension? With pay, pending his being formally charged? Then, without pay, commencing when he is formally charged, if such occurs? Without pay, pending independent review? Should he be barred from campus? Should he be directed to avoid all “contact” with students (or, directed thus only with respect to students enrolled in classes he teaches)?
I can imagine the answers depend heavily on details of existing policies. But, I can’t imagine Burleigh being terminate-able unless and until he is charged. I can imagine the CoCo requesting, or at least contemplating requesting, that he submit his resignation immediately.
It depends, doesn’t it, on how much bad publicity this generates for the school. Even the admitted facts don’t make him look too good. At very least, they need to take ethics off his course load.
There was a time when I thought I could tell a lot about a person from their picture, even their mug shot. Now, I can’t even begin to guess. This guy looks more like a serial rapist than a professor.
Oh … maybe I was right.
This guy looks more like a serial rapist than a professor.
**********
My medical background makes it obvious he drinks too much.
His liver is begging.
I have spent the greater part of my young and adult life trying to balance the differences between the “public men” and their achievements and their private lives. Martin Luther King, Jack Kennedy, Spiro Agnew, Franklin D. Roosevelt… the list goes on and on.
I have come to the conclusion that one CANNOT separate the public and the private man — what he does for the public and the way he behaves in his personal life. They are inextricably connected, and the public/private affect each other in numerous ways.
This includes politicos and artists and businessmen — I will NOT listen Frank Sinatra because he was mobbed up, despite his talent; I will NOT watch a Woody Allen movie since her married his own daughter; I WILL NOT dishonor MLK because of his infidelities, but his achievements will also include his personal misbehavior in my mind; I WILL, despite his cache, consider JFK, son of a bootlegger and inveterate cheater on his wife (though I do wonder if he would have grown into the presidency his Dad stole for him and been a ‘new world’ leader.’ I give some leeway to FDR, because he was pretty brilliant, had ideas, and though he committed impeachable secret actions to help the British during WWII and without him (thanks to Pearl Harbor) we wouldn’t have entered the War and helped to win it against a truly evil regime. He was, however, a narcissist, a snob, and a generally unlikeable character who cheated on his wife for years.
The list goes on… and creates ongoing cognitive dissonance.
However, any reader who may be interested should look up Teddy Roosevelt. He was unique and an eccentric: but he kept his word, changed in part the running of the United States, was a wonderful husband and father, and lived his public life the way he lived his personal life. One example, but for me, it proves the possibility.
See also Oliver Wendell Holmes’ essay — the “bad man” — written in 1873.
Are you blaming Pearl Harbor on FDR?
NO I am not blaming Pearl Harbor on FDR. I blame the Japanese, and still do. I only mentioned Pearl Harbor because most Americans didn’t want to fight in Europe against Hitler ; the attack on PH was an undeniable reason for the US to enter WWII, and since Japan and Germany were scorching earth and people in both the Pacific and Europe, we declared war on both. Actually I was (perhaps unclearly) praising FDR for helping England when by law he really wasn’t supposed to be doing it. You read me wrong.
I thought you were buying into the conspiracy theory that FDR allowed the attack to happen in order to whip up national fervor for the war (which is an actual thing that people think, much to my chagrin as a human). Gotcha.
You wrote: “I have come to the conclusion that one CANNOT separate the public and the private man — what he does for the public and the way he behaves in his personal life”. Speak for yourself. It is not my place to judge how politicians live their private lives of which we know only the mass media story telling. I am only concerned with how well they lead and govern.
Woody Allen married his step daughter and not his daughter. FDR was so brilliant that his economic policies are regarded as prolonging the Great Depression. Perhaps that is what he wanted. BTW, there is nothing great about a depression except for the small few who prosper off the suffering of the masses.
Teddy Roosevelt was an imperialist and a happy war-monger. People, mostly men get injured and killed in wars. During the Spanish American War, WWI, and WWII, American women essentially stayed home in safety and baked cookies with the children. Men died terrible painful deaths and those that lived were sometimes emotionally messed up for life. (However if ones asks Hillary Clinton, women suffer more than men in wars since they lose the men who were killed.) TR was a great environmental conservationist at least when it came to the national parks.
Ugh.
1. You should be concerned about their character and trustworthiness, and their private lives provide definitive evidence on that score. So John Edwards is aces with you, is he? A ridiculous statement.
2. “Woody Allen married his step daughter and not his daughter.” And the distinction is??? The distorting of family hierarchy and trust to seduce a child is the issue, not the DNA. All evidence suggests he also molested another minor step-daughter—that’s a mitigation for you too, is it? Good lord.
3. “Teddy Roosevelt was an imperialist and a happy war-monger.” Twaddle—he made America an international power, and there were no wars fought under Teddy—he won the Nobel Peace Prize, unlike the current President, for actually stopping a war. But never mind your historical ignorance–the issue is character, not politics, and integrity. TR’s integrity was unassailable. “FDR was so brilliant that his economic policies are regarded as prolonging the Great Depression.” “Are regarded” by those who themselves have only their own theories about stopping a depression, and no facts. FDR’s brilliance was in increasing public confidence and avoiding a rebellion. He was also a chameleon, an aspiring dictator, and as sneaky as they come.
Do you think that Professor Burleigh might lose his tenure over this er, laspse in judgement. 😉
While it is true that a depressing number of domestic abuse complaints go away due to fear, sometimes they go away because the complainant was lying.
For example, the last year of GZ’s life…
Most likely a sociopath teaching ethics. Hopefully he will do some hard time to ponder the contradiction.
“he used his authority and position as a teacher to cruise his class for dates”
He might have behaved in exactly that way. Yet, perhaps the student was the one who sought him out and seduced her teacher. Either way, he was wrong to become involved with a student.
Are you trying out for some kind of rationalization award? This was a defense of Clinton offered by the cretinous Maxine Waters—that seductive intern trapped poor Bill!
A student can’t seduce an ethical teacher who maintains proper professional distance and who doesn’t want to be seduced.
I took this guy a few semesters back and I am generally confused by the story since all of these actions feel amazingly unconnected to the guy I knew who was laid back, knowledgeable, and seemed to hold an aversion to violence. But I realize that is always how it goes then isn’t it?
If not always, certainly too frequently.
I can also tell you that all his classes have been cancelled for the upcoming term, so it seems BRCC has acted on the story.
Good. Thanks for the update.
It kinda sucks because I know the guy and took his last semester actually. Not sure why would drive em to this being an ethics teacher and all.
I would just like to say he is an awesome and was always a very professional professor. It is very shocking to me and other class members that this even occurred. Yes, I agree this appears to be a chaotic situation, but I don’t believe this “victim” is what she claims. Anyone can agree this sounds nothing like our teacher and we would still love to have him teach our class. May I add many people were very disappointed starting this semester when they walked into the classroom seeing another professor.