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Albuquerque, NM — David Clements, who was a professor at New Mexico State University (NMSU), has been let go from his teaching position after resisting the authoritarian mask, testing and vaccine mandates at his school and from his state’s governor, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
Over the weekend, the Liberty Loft brought to you the story of Clements’ first day of classes on Aug. 18 when he vowed to his class that he would defy the unlawful orders and offered the same freedom in his class to his students.
“Whether you want to wear a mask in my class is between you and God. You signed up for a face-to-face class and I’m going to teach a face-to-face class,” Clements told his class.
According to the Albuquerque Journal, Clements was “relieved of his teaching responsibilities for ‘gross misconduct.’” Clements’ profile page, however, is still on the NMSU website.Additionally, James Hoffman was removed as the dean of the business college starting this past Monday for standing up for Clements’ rights, but Hoffman is still employed as a teacher at NMSU.
Clements detailed the events that transpired on Telegram. According to his post: “Dean Hoffman was ordered by the university to come to my morning class and see if I was complying with the mask mandate. If I was in noncompliance, he was ordered to terminate, and remove me, in front of all of my students. Dean Hoffman showed up to my class. I was not wearing a mask. It was an ominous sign. I recorded the class wondering if what would be captured would be my public humiliation. Instead of being removed from my class, Dean Hoffman handed me the teaching excellence award I refused to pick up the day before because I would not mask up.”
Regarding Clements’ firing, apparently he wasn’t even given notification as he wrote: “No phone call. No heads up from faculty leadership. I learned from my students via text that my classes have been taken from me.”
Hoffman not only didn’t demand compliance from Clements, he “spoke graciously to me in front of my students” and “asserted his strong belief in the exercise of free speech… then left me to teach my class,” according to the Telegram post.
As for Clements, who knew this would likely come as he spoke in an interview prior to the start of the school year, noting he was not tenured yet.
“I’m not going to be treated like some experiment. So, that’s their policy. I’m deciding to not abide by that policy. I’m going to have to suffer the consequences of that,” Clements said.
Clements said “courage is contagious” and don’t be afraid to suffer consequences for doing what’s right.
“Are you willing to be a person of principle rather than a person of preference? And I think if you’re a person of principle, you’ll never regret the choices you make,” Clements said. He added: “If the world is ending, I would rather be one of those few individuals that keeps his head up high and looks people in the eye and is sure of who I am as a person, I’m not going to let someone define that for me. And we need to be people of faith. We need to have an understanding that telling the truth matters, even if it hurts. Your soul deteriorates if we keep buying into these lies and this propaganda.”
In his Telegram post, Clements urged supporters to reach out and thank Hoffman for his courage providing his email address ([email protected]) and phone number (575-646-4083).
“I can bear the hurts thrown my way. It hurts me far more to know others are suffering on my behalf,” Clements wrote.
You can also contact NMSU’s president, John Floros, and let him know what you think of his actions of removing a professor for defying unlawful dictates. His phone number is 575-646-2127 and email address is [email protected].
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