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09/18/2007: "Men fired for tying nooses"

"I've seen plenty of stagehands whittling their time away by tying all kinds of knots," said Bob Hetherington, chairman of the department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Memphis."If they were trying to send a racial message of any kind, the fly system of a theater would be the last place anyone would see it."

Another city employee, an African American, complained of a hostile work environment when he saw the nooses.

Even if GPAC technical director Matthew Strampe and part-time stagehands Michael Laraway and William Martin didn't fully grasp the racist connotations of the nooses, Lawton said, "absence of knowledge is not a defense. It is wrong."

[ These nooses were not tied to show anyone or for any intent other than goofing off. Nooses were used to hang many people. This insanity will ruin three lives, as their employment in the future is in question. And for what? Pretense. ]

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/sep/06/gc6noose/

Replies: 1 Comment

on Friday, September 21st, R.C. O'Donnell said

Its so retarded that playing with ropes in the back of a theatre during break time can be taken as offensive and harrassing someone. I know what its like to lose a job because of someone elses lack of reasoning skills and stupidity myself, if the three don't are smart and don't have anything majoring going on they should be to bounce back though.