Last September, Coastal Carolina University theater professor Steven Earnest responded to a department wide email apologizing for the way the school had handled a racial “controversy.”

“Sorry but I dont think its [sic] a big deal,” Earnest wrote about students who had walked out of class to protest what they believed to be a racist incident on campus. “I’m just sad people get their feelings hurt so easily. And they are going into Theatre?”

By that point, the school had realized the “racist” incident was actually the result of a misunderstanding.

But the trouble for Earnest was just beginning.