Report on OCC professor to be released next week

Deirdre Newman

OCC CAMPUS -- A report on the professor accused of harassing Muslim

students will be turned over to Coast Community College District

officials next week, a college spokesman said.

OCC will issue its decision on the case a few days after receiving the

report, college spokesman Jim Carnett said.

The investigation focuses on Kenneth Hearlson, a tenured political

science professor who was put on administrative leave after allegedly

calling a Muslim student a terrorist in a Sept. 18 class.

The report will bring closure to an investigation that has lasted two

months and cast the negative glare of the national spotlight on the

college for removing a professor without a hearing.

District officials had put pressure on the investigator -- Geraldine

Jaffee, counsel for the Orange County Department of Education -- to

release the report by Friday.

But Jaffee maintained that she was waiting for an additional copy of a

class tape and transcript before completing her investigation. Jaffee now

has those in her possession, Carnett said.