Posted on 08/02/2013 5:12:17 AM PDT by texanyankee
Administrators at the private Millikin University in Illinois will allow a longtime psychology professor to keep his job after learning that he killed his family in Georgetown in 1967 and was committed to a state mental hospital until 1974.
The professor’s name was James Gordon Wolcott until he changed it to James St. James in Nacogdoches, after his release from the mental facility. He has taught at Millikin since 1986 and is the chairman of the university’s Department of Behavioral Sciences.
“Millikin University has only recently been made aware of Dr. St. James’ past,” says a statement issued by the university Thursday. “Given the traumatic experiences of his childhood, Dr. St. James’ efforts to rebuild his life and obtain a successful professional career have been remarkable. The University expects Dr. St. James to teach at Millikin this fall.”
The story of St. James’ past has been widely reported this week in the media. He is now 61 years old and declined to comment when reached by phone Wednesday.
He was 15 years old when he shot and killed his father, Gordon Wolcott; his mother Elizabeth Wolcott and his sister, 17-year-old Elizabeth Wolcott at their Georgetown home on Aug. 5, 1967.
Tried for the death of his father, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1968. He was committed to Rusk State Hospital and released after he was found sane in 1974. The indictments for the murder of his sister and mother were dismissed because it was determined that he was also insane at the time of their deaths, officials have said.
i am not excusing him at all, but he was 15... and declared mentally insane... not convicted of a crime... because of his age, and all the privacy laws, he probably didn't have to disclose this "incident," no matter how horrendous... weird indeed that he is in behavioral sciences...
Well, at least he is not a Christian TEA Partier!!
hear, hear, Alas Babylon!
You know he’s got to be a liberal too...
i am not at all surprised the University is keeping him on... that anybody here is surprised surprises me...
I am surprised that you don’t see more parents rebelling against this sort of insanity. But hey - our own military had a jihadist “counseling” our soldiers.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 (English Standard Version)
English Standard Version (ESV)
Godlessness in the Last Days
3 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
“...a classmate indicated in a deposition that his father wouldn’t allow him to go to a peace rally, insisted that he cut his hair, and wouldn’t let him wear his anti-Vietnam buttons...”
The dark Hippie side is powerful in this one.
i am not surprised at the parents... by the time their kids get to college, they have had years of stepping aside to govt authority in govt schools, even when they disagreed...
Only one thing is for certain now; his students will never argue about their grade with him again.
I doubt anyone asked about the 6 years from ages 16-24...many kids “find themselves” at that age so it would be unusual to have a blank spot during that time.
Now the question I have is whether his conviction has been sealed since he was a juvenile. He might then have the right to deny the conviction.
I’d be shocked if the school didn’t ask about priors on their employment application, but you never know.
I’m guessing he didn’t “technically” do anything wrong on the application and that is why the school is standing by him. If he has tenure they would be in a world of hurt from his likely lawsuit if they canned him.
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