Tenured professor who claims Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax fired in light of public protest

Florida Atlantic University is in the process of firing a tenured professor who claims the Sandy Hook School shooting was an elaborate hoax.

James Tracy, a tenured communications professor at FAU, has written that although the mainstream media claims that 26 people died in a mass shooting at the school in Newtown, Conn, no children were actually murdered. He believes the Obama administration staged the event in order to tighten the federal government’s grip on gun control.

Tracy draws on various lines of evidence to support his case, including a supposed large fast food delivery service at the school, which he claims is indicative of a Federal Emergency Management Agency drill. In addition, he claims there are photos of the alleged murder victims alive after the supposed shooting took place.⁽¹⁾

Other anomalies Tracy sites include “no surge of EMTs in to the building, no string of ambulances to take them to hospitals to be declared dead or alive, no Med-Evac helicopter called to the scene, no 469 other students evacuated and no bodies placed on the triage tarps outside.”⁽²⁾

The Pozners fire back

Last week, Lenny and Veronique Pozner, parents of the youngest child murdered at the school, wrote an opinion peace for the Sun Sentinel that stated: “It’s been three years since we last embraced our precious little boy, Noah. At six-years-old, he was the youngest child murdered at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. …

“The heartache of burying a child is a sorrow we would not wish upon anyone. Yet to our horror, we have found that there are some in this society who lack empathy for the suffering of others. Among them are the conspiracy theorists that deny our tragedy was real. They seek us out and accuse us of being government agents who are faking our grief and lying about our loss.”⁽¹⁾

“A plethora of conspiracies arose after Sandy Hook, but none received as much mainstream publicity as Tracy, who suggested that the shooting never occurred and the Obama administration had staged the ‘event’ to prepare the country for strict gun control measures,” reported Al.com.⁽¹⁾

The parents called on the FAU to fire Tracy, claiming that although the First Amendment ensures freedom of speech, it does not ensure a job.

A few days after the opinion piece was published, Tracy replied in a Facebook post: “The Pozners, alas, are as phony as the drill itself, and profiting handsomely from the fake death of their son.”⁽¹⁾

Public outrage heightens in wake of Sandy Hook anniversary

Requests to dismiss Tracy have only intensified as the nation mourns the third anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting. The university’s social media site has been bombarded with demands to fire Tracy. In accordance with these requests, the university issued a press release:

“Today, James Tracy, an associate professor in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, was served a Notice of Proposed Discipline — Termination by the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Florida Atlantic University.⁽¹⁾

“In accordance with the University’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with the United Faculty of Florida union, by which the University and James Tracy are bound, faculty who receive such notice are afforded a grievance process. James Tracy has 10 days to respond to the notice after which final action may be taken.”⁽¹⁾

Tracy told the Daily News that he plans to fight against his impending termination.

“I think what this really involves is a matter of free speech,” he said. “All I’ve done is to delve into the Sandy Hook event. I think the work I’ve done stands up.”⁽¹⁾

Tracy earned a doctorate at the the University of Iowa and teaches courses examining the “relationship between commercial and alternative news media and socio-political issues and events.” He specialized in “media history and analysis, political economy of communication,” according to Florida Atlantic’s website.⁽²⁾

Sources include:

(1) AL.com

(2) Newskar.com