Hunter College, a public university in New York City, announced Tuesday evening it had terminated adjunct professor Shellyne Rodriguez for “unacceptable actions” and said she will not be returning to the Manhattan college to teach.
AFN first reported on Rodriguez’s violent outburst at two Students for Life activists, and her threat against a New York Post reporter, in a May 24 story. The confrontation with the pro-life students occurred May 12 on the school campus. After he was threatened outside her apartment, the Post reported on the threat against reporter Reuven Fenton in a May 23 story.
Both incidents were video-recorded but the professor, who is a black lesbian Marxist, told NYC-based website ARTNews the pro-life group had used a “manipulated video” to attack her. In that 30-second clip, she accused the pro-life students of “triggering” her students with their “violent” message, then shoved their pro-life materials across the table.
“You’re not educating [expletive],” the professor tells two students manning the table. “This is [expletive] propaganda.”
Regarding the machete incident, where she held a 10-inch machete to the reporter’s neck, Rodriguez said right-wing media is “weaponizing and sensationalizing” her situation to “project their attacks on women, trans people, black people, Latinx people, migrants, and beyond.”
As far as her firing, the art professor told ARTNews the college had caved to “racists, white nationalists, and misogynists.”
Savannah Craven, a Manhattan-based Students for Life leader, was on the Hunter College campus during the confrontation with her fellow pro-life activists. She tells AFN that Rodriguez is “clearly not stable” and doesn’t need to be teaching students.
“She has a lot of emotional things that she needs to deal with personally before she goes and starts being around students and teaching,” Craven says.
The professor was arrested Thursday morning at a Bronx police station after turning herself in.
