News Article #44
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Debate Gone Wild
How out of hand could a debate possibly get? Read this Fox News article to find out how some people take unimportant debates WAYYYYY too seriously:
Kansas Professor in Trouble for Mooning Incident
August 14, 2008
Fort Hays State University debate coach William Shanahan is shown on the video in a profane, in-your-face argument with his counterpart from the University of Pittsburgh during a debate in March at Emory University in Atlanta.
Things got out of control when two judges gave the team low scores, school officials said.
The video shows Shanahan jumping up and down and ranting about the loss. He then bends over and pulls down his khaki shorts, exposing his underwear.
"We're sure that there's probably some facts and information that's just not available," Fort Hays State Provost Larry Gould said. "I mean, you see a lot on the video, but we need to make sure everything is revealed before we take any action."
No one knows what kind of punishment Shanahan may receive, but so far he has not been disciplined, according to The Kansas City Star.
Shanahan could not immediately be reached by FOXNews.com for comment.
Gould said the Pittsburgh professor, Shanara Reid-Brinkley, had accused the Fort Hays team of dropping her as a judge because she's black.
The Kansas school also is looking into what an official calls the "racial element" to the episode.
"Fort Hays State University does not condone that behavior ... it is wrong ... or the language in that video ... it is inappropriate and too coarse," Gould told the Star. "However, we understand there is this confrontational, rapid-delivery debate style where people are screaming at one another."
"This is bulls---. Your anger is bulls---," Reid-Brinkley bellows in the video. "You're a f---ing a--hole!"
Shanahan leaps up from his seat on the floor, yells at Reid-Brinkley and starts jumping up and down wildly.
"I know I'm a f---ing a--hole!" he yells, turning around and pulling down his shorts briefly to the flabbergasted people watching.
The two professors continue shouting, getting into each other's faces and following each other around the room, despite efforts to break up the nearly 9-minute-long screaming match.
At one point Shanahan pushes another faculty member who tries to intervene.
Gould told the Star that the Department of Communication Studies chair and the dean of the College of Arts and Science is investigating the incident; he expects the results within the week.
Shanahan was on his way back from teaching a course at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire on Wednesday, according to the Star.
"I have certainly learned several important lessons," Shanahan wrote in an e-mail to The Hays Daily News.
"I only hope that the costs are not too high. My greatest concern, however, is that the university, our students or anybody else does not suffer too greatly for my mistakes."
A University of Pittsburgh spokesman, John Fedelie, told the Star that the school also was investigating Reid-Brinkley's behavior and involvement in the argument.
Click here to read more on this story from KCTV in Kansas City.
This story was written by an associate of Fox News and can also be found here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,403781,00.html