Ashley Tellis, an associate professor was asked to resign from St Joseph’s College of Arts and Sciences in Bengaluru for hurting the ‘sensitivities of undergraduate students from heterogeneous backgrounds’. The college principal told him, “Students are disturbed by your personal opinions. The management has got to know of these opinions. I have been asked to relieve you with immediate effect.” Ashley used to work in the Department of English in St Joseph’s college. He is also an LBGT rights activist. A shocked Ashley took to Facebook in a series of post about the college treated him and shared incidents in which he stated that the college has been extorting money from students in the name of various funds.
But, as per the college, he had crossed the line and there were several complaints against him by the students and parents. However, Ashley believes that his sexual orientation could have resulted in his eviction from college. In his Facebook posts he has also criticised the Principal for his narrow-minded and wrote, “This is the Principal who pulls students out of the exam, trauamtises them by confiscating their ID cards because they have long hair (boys), are wearing ear studs (boys), have colour in their hair (girls), have a tear in their jeans (boys and girls). This is the Principal who makes students buy concert tickets to raise funds for the college and if they don’t, informs then that they will not get their hall tickets for the exams. This is the Principal who forces students to pay Rs. 500 for the new college building, shaming them by pointing to how expensive their mobile phones are.” Ka BodyScapes, Aligarh, Kapoor and Sons: Indian movies that show LGBT issues realistically
Questioning the rules by which he was asked to leave the college, in one of his Facebook posts he questions, “Why are my personal opinions a problem and my “choice” to be homosexual not one?” He also said that the college always had an issue with his homosexuality. The professor also said that the college even broke the cause of giving a notice period of one month which was mentioned in his job contract. Delhi University student who was masturbated on her jeans at college fest files FIR
However, a student from the same college told Indian Express that the Professor was appointed on a temporary six-month contract in November 2016. “Later, while we appreciated his intellectual abilities and his scholarship, we were pained to note that he seemed to pay no heed to the sensitivities of undergraduate students from heterogeneous backgrounds. After receiving several complaints from students and their parents about Prof Ashley having crossed the line repeatedly in his interaction and comments, the management decided that it would be for the best to terminate his services.” Delhi University’s hostel girls were not allowed to play Holi as management wanted to assure their safety
Here is the series of posts by Ashley Tellis that led to a social media outrage:
However, not many came out in support of the Professor. While some students supported Tellis for his views, most failed to stand with the Professor. The college in an official statement said that the decision was taken after many parents and students complained about Telli’s “sexual orientation.”
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