Professor fired over 'mooning' incident

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NBC NEWS- A Kansas university's debate coach's wild rant has cost him his job.

Fort Hays State has announced the dismissal of Bill Shanahan for violating the school's code of ethics.

The dismissal also affected the team he was supposed to lead.

Hays High School senior Kyle Haley's friends were just a hallway's length away from Shanahan's outburst at Wichita State University earlier this year.

He got a text message detailing the debate just moments after it happened.

"They said, 'Hey you're from Hays and here's what your coach did,'" Haley said. "And it was shocking."

That behavior led to a university investigation and now his termination.

"The university has dismissed Bill Shanahan as an assistant professor in our communications program and as head coach of our debate program for violation of the university's faculty code of ethics," said FHSU President Dr. Edward Hammond.

But not only professor Bill Shanahan will be leaving Fort Hays State.

The college has also decided to give the boot to the entire debate program.

Fort Hays feels the atmosphere of debate has taken a turn for the worst and that Shanahan's rant wasn't a far stretch from some of the behavior that's now happening at debate tournaments.

"It's just a known fact that policy debate is evolving," Haley said.

Haley's a debater himself and was considering attending Fort Hays State University.

"It was a possibility," he said. "And if I did it was to specifically debate under Bill Shanahan."

That won't be happening now.

He and many other students may now choose to attend another university so they can still debate.

Students who are currently attending FHSU on a debate scholarship will keep that funding through this year.

The college isn't sure when the debate program will be re-instated.

Tuesday, Aug 26 at 12:09 PM jdl wrote ...

odd

Monday, Aug 25 at 4:27 PM Jon Waters wrote ...

FHSU has no idea how many lives they've ruined with this. What a mismanagement by the administration. And please, if you're going to report on this, get someone who can explain the context.

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