Professor let go after comments on Warmbier death

The University of Delaware has cut ties with an adjunct professor who suggested that Otto Warmbier, the Cincinnati-area student whose death last week after being imprisoned in North Korea drew worldwide attention, was a “clueless white male” who “got exactly what he deserved.”

Katherine Dettwyler, who taught in the anthropology department as recently as spring semester, “will not be rehired to teach at the University in the future,” the university said in a statement. Her comments were posted at a time when she was not employed with the university and “in no way reflect the values or position of the University of Delaware,” the statement read.

Warmbier, a 22-year-old student from the University of Virginia, was traveling in North Korea when he was arrested in early 2016 for allegedly trying to steal a propaganda poster from a hotel. He was sentenced to 15 years hard labor in North Korean prison for “hostile acts” against the state.

Warmbier died of unknown causes in a Cincinnati hospital on June 19, a week after he was returned to the United States in a coma.

Days later, in a now-deleted post from her Facebook account, Dettwyler wrote that Warmbier was “typical of the mindset of a lot of the young, white, rich, clueless males who come into my classes,” according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Is it wrong of me to think that Otto Warmbier got exactly what he deserved?” she wrote. “I see him crying at his sentencing hearing and think, ‘What did you expect?’”

The post continued: “These are the same kids who cry about their grades because they didn’t think they’d really have to read and study the material to get a good grade. His parents ultimately are to blame for his growing up thinking he could get away with whatever he wanted. Maybe in the US, where young, white, rich, clueless white males routinely get away with raping women. Not so much in North Korea.”

Dettwyler, 62, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.