Posted on March 12, 2021

Georgetown Law Professor Terminated After Remarks About Black Students

Catherine Thorbecke and Benjamin Siu, ABC News, March 12, 2021

A Georgetown Law School professor has been terminated after comments she made about a lot of her “lower” students being Black went viral and sparked a firestorm of backlash on social media.

In a recording of the video call, adjunct professor Sandra Sellers is speaking to a fellow adjunct about students’ evaluations and performance.

“And you know what, I hate to say this, I end up having this angst every semester that a lot of my lower ones are Blacks. Happens almost every semester,” Sellers said. “And it’s like, ‘Oh, come on.’ You get some really good ones, but there are also usually some that are just plain at the bottom. It drives me crazy.”

Bill Treanor, the dean of the law school, said in a statement Thursday that he was “appalled that two members of our faculty engaged in a conversation that included reprehensible statements concerning the evaluation of Black students.”

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The dean said that the other adjunct professor on the call, David Batson, has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation by the school’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action. {snip}

The Georgetown University Law Center Black Law Students Association condemned the incident in a statement.

“Not only is this situation revealing of Sellers’ true beliefs about Black students, it is also illustrative of the conscious and unconscious bias systemically present in law school grading at Georgetown Law and in law school classrooms nationwide,” the statement added. “The difference is that Sellers was caught and her racism was broadcast for the world to see.”

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