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The U.S. Naval Academy fired a tenured English professor for what officials described as “unprofessional conduct,” including inappropriately touching students and emailing photos of himself partially clothed, The Washington Post reported.
The academy notified Bruce Fleming about its decision in a letter Aug. 15, citing incidents where Fleming referred to students as "right-wing extremists," touched students without their consent and emailed shirtless photos to students.
“Given this set of facts, I do not have confidence that you will perform at a satisfactory level in the future," Andrew Phillips, academic dean and provost at the academy, wrote in the letter.
Fleming denied the allegations.
“I do NOT apologize,” Bruce Fleming wrote in an email to The Washington Post on Friday. “Nothing I did was inappropriate.”
He characterized his firing as a "revenge campaign" to silence him as an outspoken critic of the academy, particularly about the academy's admissions practices.
About the shirtless photos, Fleming said he worked as a model and had shared a photo with a male student while discussing body imagery in a poem. He also said that the partial flex shot he sent to the class was a “meme.”
