A Texas astronomy professor has been suspended after his students fled his lecturer in terror when he covered his face and started incoherently lecturing about Islam.
Scared students at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth called the police after lecturer Daniel Mashburn started rambling about connections between the Koran and the stars while reaching into his pocket.
People in the class said he turned up 20 minutes late and then turned off the lights. At the time, he was wearing a baseball cap, a toboggan (knit cap), a scarf over his face, and gloves, according to KDFW-TV.
Daniel Mashburn, an adjunct professor of astronomy at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, has been suspended by administrators pending an investigation
Students attending his college astronomy class in Texas called police on Tuesday after they were startled to see him cover his face in winter gear while incoherently lecturing about Islam and reaching into his pocket
A student filmed video on her cell phone of Mashburn being questioned by police after many of his students walked out due to his bizarre behavior
Some students said they were scared by Mashburn’s behavior, while others thought it was a joke. He is seen above in a photo posted to his Facebook account showing him covering his face with winter gear
He then launched into a bizarre lecture about the connections between astronomy and the Islamic faith.
Some students said they were scared by Mashburn’s behavior, while others thought it was a joke.
As of Thursday, Mashburn was suspended indefinitely by school administrators pending an investigation, though he was not arrested by police, according to the on-campus news service The Collegian.
‘I like to keep it dark because I wanted to go out and see the stars,’ he said Thursday.
April McLeod, one of Mashburn’s students, told KDFW-TV that Mashburn never removed his winter coat and scarf throughout the entire class. She said he kept it all on even when police arrived and questioned him
‘I said I wanted to see the stars later, and unnatural light wouldn’t work.’
Reginald Gates, a top administrator at the college, said: ‘Students and faculty safety is paramount.
‘We’re looking at what happened, how it happened and what we can do differently going forward.’
April McLeod, one of Mashburn’s students, told KDFW-TV that Mashburn never removed his winter coat and scarf throughout the entire class.
She said he kept it all on even when police arrived and questioned him.
‘The kid next to me had said he was acting very strange, looked over at the girl next to me seemed very scared,’ McLeod said.
Administrators at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth have suspended Mashburn indefinitely while they conduct an investigation
‘Mostly he was talking about different things of the Muslim faith.
‘I was in class for about five minutes. He kept messing with his pocket and you could tell there was an object in the right-hand pocket.
‘And whenever he went to pull out his hand, I started having this really bad feeling and jumped up and ran out of the classroom.’
McLeod said the bizarre behavior just got worse.
‘At one point he stood face to face with the board of the classroom and was just talking to the board,’ McLeod said.
Police questioned Mashburn, though they did not find any weapons.
Just two of the more than 20 students stayed for his entire lecture before police arrived.
Mashburn seemed to take offense at the fact that his students walked out on him.
‘They pay a measly fee, $56 to, at most, $129 — a miserable sum for the knowledge and wisdom that I can pass onto them,’ he said.
‘Why would they walk out on me? Why would they protest me?’
When a KDFW-TV reporter approached Mashburn at his home, the professor refused to come down from his second-floor balcony.
When a KDFW-TV reporter approached Mashburn at his home, the professor refused to come down from his second-floor balcony
‘Are you aware that you scared some of those students?’ the TV reporter asked Mashburn. ‘Why should they be afraid?’ he replied
Mashburn said: ‘Why are they afraid? I’m a man who covers his face in his hand. I offer you nothing but the Koran (seen in his hand above) a book and the universe. The universe is in my hand right here. You can look at it’
He spoke on camera to the reporter while he was wearing the same facial covering that prompted students in his class to call police.
‘Are you aware that you scared some of those students?’ the TV reporter asked Mashburn.
‘Why should they be afraid?’ he replied.
‘Well, you wouldn’t show your face,’ the reporter said.
‘Many people do not show their faces. And in many countries, they do not show their faces,’ Mashburn said.
‘Well here in America, we tend to usually show our face when we are a professor at a college. That’s typically the standard.’
Mashburn: ‘Oh, yes. But I do not answer to your standard. I am not a Christian. I am not a Jew. I’m a Muslim.’
‘I do not know why they fear me,’ he said.
‘Why are they afraid? I’m a man who covers his face in his hand.
‘I offer you nothing but the Koran a book and the universe.
‘The universe is in my hand right here. You can look at it.’
Adrian Vasquez was one of two students not to leave the class during Mashburn’s lecture.
He said he didn’t think there was anything to be afraid of.
‘To me, if he can show his identification and answer questions and be searched and not find nothing, that’s pretty much the OK that I’m going to stay,’ he said.