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Ohio State University is reviewing the conduct of Paul Granello, an associate professor of counselor education who was accused of using the N-word in class last semester, according to The Columbus Dispatch. A group of graduate students also accused Granello, a suicide-prevention expert, of using insensitive language to talk about friends and family members affected by suicide. Specifically, graduate students in the class in question said Granello had argued that the language people sometimes use to describe suicide is so problematic as to be comparable to using racial slurs or slurs against those with intellectual disabilities. The students also argued that this comparison and Granello's direct use of the N-word was wholly unnecessary to make that point.
The university’s Office of Institutional Equity is reviewing “this and other issues raised by this incident,” Ben Johnson, Ohio State spokesperson, said in a statement. Granello was originally scheduled to teach this semester but is instead “developing curriculum, conducting research and handling other responsibilities,” Johnson said.
Granello reportedly apologized to students and told the Dispatch in a statement, “In a graduate-level course with 12 students in a discussion of the power of language and the care that we must use in our choice of words, I gave examples of how certain words have power.”
