The professor fired by Everest University officials after bringing a gun onto campus has received throngs of support from her students, university staff and fellow law enforcement officials. Meanwhile, in a move the university says is unrelated to the case, university president Peter Priatti has resigned and a congressional investigation into Title 4 violations is unfolding.
Carol Sciannaemeo, a Gulfport-based lesbian and law enforcement officer, brought a gun onto campus earlier this year after a student made threatening racist and homophobic remarks toward her. Even though she had brought a gun onto campus before, the university let her go.
Sciannameo has a long list of credentials which include serving openly as a lesbian on the New York Police Department for 20 years, beginning in 1980 with transit police. She is a board member of GOAL (Gay Officers Action League), is a graduate of the FBI Academy and was the highest ranking officer to wear her uniform during the first New York City gay pride parade where officers were allowed to wear their uniforms.
Watermark first reported her firing in July.
In email addressed to Priatti on July 8, former student Vitin Matos echoed what dozens of other students have said.
“I was once at the Largo Campus and during my tenure I had the pleasure of having been able to tap into the knowledge of the field that Instructor Sciannameo was able to share with us,” Matos wrote. “I am appalled at what I am discovering is going on at the institution of higher learning that will bear a name on my degree. I have to tell you that one student who is obviously not the norm is not worth all of this disarray and hostile environment.”
While there have been some rumors among students and colleagues at Everest that there was a significant increase in the number of students leaving the program after Sciannameo’s firing, Jamie Floer of the university’s PR firm Wragg & Casas in Orlando said that the university has looked into that allegation and found that there has only been a 4% attrition rate in the criminal justice program since July 1.
The Sciannemeo case has attracted the attention of some heavy hitters in the criminal justice field who have gone on record in support of both Sciannemeo in general and in specific support of the actions she took to protect herself and her students which lead to her firing.
Sciannemeo has since received a cease and desist order from Corinthian Colleges, Inc., the parent company of Everest University the university, effectively muzzling her from continued conversations with the media.
