Attorney for UCF professor speaks out as school looks into firing him

ORLANDO, Fla. - A University of Central Florida professor is fighting to keep his job after the school announced it intends to fire him.

"He’s facing financial ruin. He’s devastated. UCF has shown absolutely no regard for his humanity," said Samantha Harris, the attorney representing Dr. Charles Negy. "This all started the day after #UCFFIREHIM started trending on Twitter."

It was back in June when Negy posted controversial tweets regarding Blacks and other minorities, causing a social media firestorm.

UCF said he was protected under the First Amendment, but UCF’s president said he would look into it.

Harris said, "Hosted a public statement asking people to come forward with complaints. They can’t directly fire him for these tweets, so they found another way to go after him." 

UCF said its intent to terminate Negy has nothing to do with his tweets. According to the report, Negy created a hostile learning environment in class through discriminatory harassment.

Student Derresha Jones said she filed a complaint two years ago.

"He said many inappropriate comments that I don’t feel comfortable saying."

Negy’s also accused of deterring students from filing complaints and failed to disclose that a student told him she was sexually assaulted by one of his teaching assistants in 2014.

Investigators stated Negy provided false information during the investigation, but Harris said during a nine-hour questioning, they never gave him time to look into the allegations from many years ago.

"So the fact that they're treating his lack of memory during this ambush as evidence of intentional deception is just, again, outrageous," Harris said. 

RELATED: UCF professor under fire after controversial tweets about race

Harris said his sexual behavior and cross-cultural psychology courses involve sensitive subjects where he challenges students' views.

"UCF has violated his First Amendment rights. They have violated his due process rights. People have engaged in defamation. The treatment of him has just been outrageous and it’s unlawful, and we intend to fight it."

UCF said Negy has until January 25 to respond. The University will make a determination on if it will fire him after that. UCF said it will not comment on the investigation.

Read the University of Central Florida Office Of Institutional Equity report below.  Mobile users can click here to read.

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