Florida Atlantic University fired embattled communications professor James Tracy following a ten-day period in which an appeal could be filed for his pending termination.
Tracy made headlines recently, after a dispute with parents Veronique and Lenny Pozner, whose son Noah died in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, went public. The Pozners were outraged when Tracy demanded paperwork from them verifying that their son ever existed.
They shared their disdain in an open letter published in The Sun-Sentinel:
Tracy even sent us a certified letter demanding proof that Noah once lived, that we were his parents, and that we were the rightful owner of his photographic image. We found this so outrageous and unsettling that we filed a police report for harassment. Once Tracy realized we would not respond, he subjected us to ridicule and contempt on his blog, boasting to his readers that the ‘unfulfilled request’ was ‘noteworthy’ because we had used copyright claims to ‘thwart continued research of the Sandy Hook massacre event.’
Tracy claims that the Sandy Hook massacre and other American mass shootings have been staged by the U.S. government. He defends this position via his own personal blog, Memory Hole, and was previously reprimanded by FAU for not establishing that his views did not necessarily reflect those of the university.
The reason given for Tracy’s termination was not on the basis of his conspiracy claims, but, according to a letter given to Tracy, for failure to submit a “Report of Outside Employment or Professional Activity Form.”
The tenured professor, who has been on staff at Florida Atlantic since 2002, intends to appeal his firing.
