Pennsylvania professor on leave for using N-word during lecture

A Pennsylvania professor is on leave after a video showed him repeatedly using a racial slur during an online course — insisting that it was OK since it was being used in an educational setting.

Video posted to Twitter Friday showed Duquesne University education professor Gary Shank saying the N-word at least three times during a remote session on Wednesday.

“I’m giving you permission to use the word, OK?” Shank says on the clip. “Because we’re using the word in a pedagogical sense. What’s the one word about race that we’re not allowed to use?”

Several seconds of silence follow his question before Shank offers up a “hint,” saying the word starts with the letter N.

“It’s even hard to say, OK?” he continues. “I’ll tell you the word. And again, I’m not using in any way other than to demonstrate a point. Fair enough?”

A separate clip depicts Shank using the racial slur three times in the span of roughly 50 seconds, saying it was a “very commonly used word” when he was younger.

“Could we do that nowadays?” Shank asks.

Shank later apologized to students in an email sent Wednesday, according to the Duquesne Duke, the university’s campus newspaper.

“As part of my pedagogy this morning I used a term that I now realize was deeply troubling to the class,” the email read. “It was not my intent to do, but I must take responsibility for the impact of my words and teaching.”

Sophomore Kaytlin Black said Shank’s apology didn’t “do justice” to all the things he said during the session.

“He spent the entire 50-minute Zoom class [Friday] apologizing,” Black told the newspaper.

Another student, Katie Rhodes, said Shank’s class was one of the “most uncomfortable” she had ever endured.

“Racial insensitivity is never OK and for a professor to hide behind a racial slur by saying it was for educational purposes is extremely disappointing and made me appalled,” Rhodes told the Duquesne Duke.

A Duquense spokeswoman said Shank was put on paid leave later Friday pending an investigation. Another professor will take over his educational psychology course, the spokeswoman told the student newspaper.

A message seeking comment from Shank was not immediately returned Monday.

The student who posted the video, meanwhile, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he shared it after getting it from a student in Shank’s class who did not want to be identified.