A University of Delaware professor is under fire for saying that the college student who died after being held prisoner in North Korea “got exactly what he deserved.”
Calls are mounting for the university to fire adjunct anthropology professor Kathy Dettwyler, who reportedly wrote on her personal Facebook page that Otto Warmbier was “typical of a mindset of a lot of the young, white, rich, clueless males who come into my classes.”
“These are the same kids who cry about their grades because they didn’t think they’d really have to read and study the material to get a good grade…”
“His parents ultimately are to blame for his growing up thinking he could get away with whatever he wanted. Maybe in the US, where young, white, rich, clueless white males routinely get away with raping women. Not so much in North Korea.
“And of course, it’s Ottos’ parents who will pay the price for the rest of their lives,” Dettwyler wrote, according to a report in The News Journal of Wilmington, DE.
The university released a statement saying that Dettwyler’s comments “do not reflect the values or position” of the college.
“We condemn any and all messages that endorse hatred and convey insensitivity toward a tragic event such as the one that Otto Warmbier and his family suffered,” the statement read.
The college has refused to say whether it would take disciplinary action against Dettwyler.
Warmbier. 22. was sentenced to 15 years hard labor in North Korea for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster from his hotel in early 2016. He fell into a coma and was released earlier this month.
He died Monday.