An 88-year-old University of Georgia professor has just gotten cross-ways with one of his students. Now, what do you suppose that this student did? Maybe they were disrespectful to the professor? Maybe they were swearing? Maybe they had a terrible outburst that frightened this professor? No on all three of these counts. What actually happened is that the student refused to wear a mask over their nose, and so this professor decided to resign in the middle of the class they were supposed to teach!

The Details

Irwin Bernstein is now a former professor of psychology because he decided to resign just minutes into a class after a student allegedly refused to wear a mask over her nose.

At the date of this writing, the University of Georgia does not have any requirements for their students, faculty, or other staff to wear any type of face mask at any of their campus facilities, including classrooms.

Bernstein told the school newspaper Red & Black that he encountered an unnamed female that had showed up at one of his seminars on the second day of class without a mask. Despite the school policy of not requiring masks, Dr. Bernstein apparently had his own mask mandate in mind. He wrote on the board in the front of his classroom, “No mask, no class.”

Even though one of the peers of this female student went ahead and gave her a mask, she allegedly refused to wear it, saying that these masks made it difficult for her to breathe.

Dr. Bernstein and this student allegedly got into a power struggle where he repeatedly asked her to put on the mask but she still refused.

Dr. Bernstein then went on to explain to the student that he had diabetes, hypertension, and several other maladies, but the student still refused.

“That’s it,” the professor told the class in response to the student’s continual denials. “I’m retired.”

The frightened professor told the school paper that he wasn’t going to risk his life teaching in a classroom after he had served his country in the Air Force.

“Whereas I had risked my life to defend my country while in the Air Force, I was not willing to risk my life to teach a class with an unmasked student during this pandemic,” he said, and according to the report, the whole classroom watched as he packed his things and walked out on the class.

“Resignation was an all or none decision,” he told the student paper. “I felt some relief as I had been getting more concerned as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in recent weeks.”

What else?

Hannah Huff is a student in Bernstein’s class, and she couldn’t fathom why any student would disrespect this elderly professor in this manner. Well, that’s all well and good, but here’s a novel idea for you: uh, maybe she couldn’t breathe? Just a thought….

“The damage is done,” she told the student paper. “Obviously the student has her values, and they’re clearly not going to change even when someone asked you to do something that will make them feel comfortable. Bernstein is there for you [the student]. Like, he came out of retirement to do something for us, but you just can’t take it out of the kindness of your heart to put a piece of fabric on properly.”

She added, “This is not what I signed up for. This was not my original plan for my final semester here. It’s heartbreaking. It’s surreal. I kept thinking to myself, ‘There’s no way this is happening.’ There was definitely hidden hostility in that room, and I do feel a little bit of anger toward this girl, but mainly agitation.”

According to the school paper, Bernstein began his career as a part-time lecturer in 1968, transitioned to full-time in 1971, and became semi-retired in 2011 but continued to work part-time.

If he wants to retire and have a hissy fit, that’s totally up to him, but I have just one question: what of social distancing? How come he couldn’t have just kept his distance from the student? Boy, do we live in some strange times…