Politcal Correctness schmolitical correctness

I learned this evening that one of my friends and colleagues was fired from the Academy today. It's still not common knowledge so I won't refer to him by name, just as FT (as in Former Teacher). To be more correct I should probably not even use pronouns to identify the gender but I believe that is unavoidable. My source is the best friend and drinking buddy of FT so I am taking his description of the events with a grain of salt, but it's true that our mutual friend no longer works here.

From what I'm told (and I don't pretend to have all the facts), the story goes like this. The cause of this termination is a charge of "unwanted touching" of a female student. The "touching" in question involved FT putting his hand on a student's shoulder as he steered the student toward a piece of educational equipment she had inquired about. Nothing more than a hand on the shoulder, but apparently FT was on probation for the last few years after a similar charge, and this hand to shoulder contact was in violation of that probation. The incident was "investigated" by the Academy lawyer who made her report to the headmaster, who in turn acted on the matter as he saw fit. I use quotes around "investigated" because the lawyer apparently didn't see fit to interview the student in question, nor any of the other dozen or so students in the classroom at the time of the incident.

Now once again I stress that I don't have all the facts and my source of facts was upset during our conversation. Let me also stress that FT is also a friend of mine, and though not a close friend I do find it very hard to believe the incident was anything more than a brief hand on the shoulder. My initial reaction is that political correctness is going to be the downfall of this society and I'll do whatever I can to help FT.

After thinking about it a bit more, I'm pretty sure that FT is screwed. The reason I say this has nothing to do with him, and I'll still stand up for the guy, but because the charge is "unwanted touching" and not "inappropriate touching," there's not a thing anyone can do about it. A thorough investigation by anyone should find, if indeed it was just a hand on the shoulder, that there was nothing inappropriate about this touch and FT was fired wrongly, but there's only one person who can decide if it anything unwanted is involved. It's a very sticky situation, and it's not a law that is worded to the benefit of anyone with completely innocent intentions caught in a bad situation.

After thinking about it a bit more, I'm convinced that political correctness is going to be the downfall of this society. I won't climb up on my soapbox because I there's nothing profound or insightful about what I have to say, but there's too much time and resources spent on not offending people to actually get anything productive accomplished. The Nazis certainly didn't worry about offending people, and while I absolutely don't agree with their methods, they were efficient.

Let me also go on the record as saying that sexual harassment is a bad thing, and the laws against it are necessary and well-intentioned. However I think people take it too far and people are fired for things that shouldn't even be considered. If FT had slapped the student on the backside I would say he got what's coming to him, but a hand on the shoulder? Come on people, wake up and smell the reality.

FT, hang in there pal. It doesn't look good from where I sit, but I'm behind you.