Colorado Professor Threatens to Cancel Classes to Protest Concealed Carry on Campus

Professor Jerry Peterson, chairman of the Colorado University Boulder Faculty Assembly, told the Daily Camera that, under his own “personal policy,” he plans to cancel class if he ever learns any of his students are carrying firearms.

A Colorado Supreme Court ruling this spring overturned CU’s Boulder campus gun ban, and university officials say that students with conceal-carry permits are allowed to bring guns into classrooms and labs.

DailyCamera.com  reports that University of Colorado Chancellor Phil DiStefano notified the Boulder campus faculty Tuesday afternoon that professors “do not have the right to shut down a class or refuse to teach” should they learn that one of their students is lawfully carrying a gun under a concealed-carry permit.

And, DiStefano added, any faculty members who do so will be in violation of their contracts and face disciplinary action.

“I have the utmost respect for Professor Peterson, who is an old friend and valued colleague, but I want to make clear that if the student carrying the weapon has a concealed-carry permit, the position implied by Professor Peterson’s comments directly violates Colorado law and the operating principles of the campus,” DiStefano wrote in the e-mail to faculty.

Peterson stood by his classroom policy Tuesday and said he’s never had to cancel a class. The physics professor — who has said he simply wants his students to feel safe to engage in discussions that could become controversial — reiterated that the presence of guns in his classroom “would destroy the learning environment.”

We hope that Peterson keeps his promise and cancels class if one of his students legally carries a concealed handgun to class.  It’s time to start purging the U.S. higher education system of liberal fascist professors. Our education system is an embarrassment to the Republic.

DiStefano, in his e-mail, said canceling a class in those circumstances would discriminate against concealed-carry permit holders and deprive other students of the education they have paid for.

“On this issue, there can be no ambiguity: all CU-Boulder faculty, as CU and state employees, are expected to teach their assigned courses and to hold classes for all enrolled students,” DiStefano wrote.

Bronson Hilliard, spokesman for the Boulder campus, said university officials appreciate that Peterson is concerned about the safety of his students, but stressed that students with-concealed carry permits are allowed to bring guns to campus.

Hilliard declined to speculate on what type of disciplinary actions professors could face if they cancel classes to keep guns out of their classrooms, saying such cases would be handled by department chairs.

Over the summer, CU officials ironed out rules surrounding concealed-carry in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, banning guns from undergraduate dorms and the Bear Creek Apartments, but allowing them in some family housing units, including a dozen cottages and some units in Athens North. Students in these family housing units must sign contracts stating that they will lock their guns in safes when they leave their cottages or apartments.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the University of Colorado cannot ban concealed-weapon permit holders from bringing their guns to campus.

And while gun-rights activists are celebrated the ruling, CU says it discounts the regents’ authority to govern safety on its campuses.

Colorado’s highest court sided with Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, a gun-rights group that filed a lawsuit against CU in 2008, arguing that a university policy banning concealed weapons from its campuses violates state gun laws.

Colorado State University has allowed guns on its campus for over a decade.