San Juan Capistrano City Councilman Derek Reeve, who just weeks ago ignited a firestorm of controversy by announcing from the dais that he'd named his dog "Muhammad," has now questioned the integrity of 'Middle Eastern' students on his Facebook page.
Reeve was also in the news when it was discovered he'd plagarized dozens of passages for a political column he wrote for the Patch news site. He dismissed those allegations, contending while he'd used other's work without attribution, the same standards didn't apply to blogs as other forms of writing.
An attorney and college teacher, Reeve, who portrays himself as an arch-conservative, lost his job teaching political science at Concordia University after those revelations. Saddleback College kept him on board, however.
It's apparently students there that spurred his latest Facebook post. The page is open to friends only, but the post was sent to several media outlets.
On his Facebook page, Reeve questioned "Are my international Middle Eastern students less honest or just really bad at cheating?"
We'll contact Reeve, Saddleback and others tomorrow for comment. See earlier reports of the other episodes at www.thecapistranodispatch.com ... Also, a college watchdog has a post at http://dissenttheblog.blogspot.com/
@ "GaFE", WAIT, maybe you were kidding...
Posted by: Steve Behmerwohld | December 14, 2011 at 08:06 AM
Steve: I think "Good at Finding Excuses" was sarcastically pointing out Mr. Reardon's penchant for generalizing.
Even if 100% of the Middle Eastern students in his class are proven cheaters, the sample size is far too small to make any extrapolations valid.
And even if we set aside the racism, there are procedures for dealing with cheating students. Posting blog comments accusing them with no evidence provided is not the procedure, particularly when the students are so clearly identified.
Posted by: MDRackham | December 15, 2011 at 03:47 PM
Reeve was the poster boy for all the conspiracy nuts in town. Thank God real common sense has prevailed. The Reardon guy needs to get a clue!
Posted by: swallowview | December 15, 2011 at 06:26 PM
Hey!!!! Wait a minute!!! Who is Orrie in the Facebook??? :) Readon explain...
Posted by: swallowview | December 15, 2011 at 06:29 PM
I'll repeat the question: Were they cheating?
Posted by: Jim Reardon | December 15, 2011 at 08:59 PM