Deadline: Jay Sedrish, who was hired to teach a course at the Columbia College of Hollywood on unit production management and assistant director duties (which was to include set safety) has “withdrawn” from the college following a barrage of complaints from students, former students and those in the entertainment industry.
6 comments:
I completely agree with the decision to no longer have Sedrish teaching at CCH, especially due to his recent record with OSHA and his status as a felon. But what I’m really confused about is why the Columbia College of Hollywood would hire him in the first place. Any good employer would do background research on whoever they were hiring, so they had to know about this incident. Why would they feel he was qualified to teach? Or at least why did they take the risk on someone who is a convicted felon? They had to know that at least a few people wouldn’t take kindly to the decision. Also, don’t most colleges have policies where they, you know, can’t hire convicted felons? Because I feel like that’s a thing. To me, there seems like no reason to hire this guy, except maybe as a publicity stunt. I guess any press is good press right?
Columbia College of Hollywood definitely made the right decision in this case. It's completely inappropriate for someone who has felony charges because of OSHA violations and manslaughter to be teaching at a university, especially when the material includes a set safety unit. I agree with Emma that it's ridiculous that they didn't do some sort of background check on him before allowing him to work there. If they did run a background check and he made it through then I think that school needs to double check the rest of their staff. Students felt so upset and unsafe they petitioned for him to leave, which just goes to show how important this is. I'm really happy that the school listened in this case, and I hope they continue to value their student's opinions. No matter how skilled or professional someone it should never excuse a past as bad as his. Having a good resume is great, but who you are as a person is equally or even more important. I can only hope that the family of Sarah Jones feel some sort of relief with this decision, and that he doesn't somehow weasel his way into another school.
I can kind of see both sides in this. I totally understand the reaction from the student body, demanding that Sedrish be replaced for the purpose of the lecture. What Sedrish did is clearly criminal, and he should not be regarded as a respected professional in the industry. That being said, he might still have something to contribute. Instead of choosing to ban him from campus, I would have preferred the opportunity to question (read interrogate) him. I don't even necessarily mean on his criminal misconduct. I just mean about the business. Normally when you have a speaker, there is some degree of respect afforded. There are some things you just can't ask. But this guys career is rightfully over. There would have been a unique opportunity to ask him literally anything you wanted. He has earned exactly no respect, and probably does not have much left to lose.
I realize this is a weird viewpoint, I'm just saying its an interesting chance that they will not have again.
So a couple things with this the article. One what was the school thinking? I d=understand that people make mistakes and one mistake is typically not a reason to bar someone from pursuing a passion. When that mistake costs a life, however, that person has to take those consequences whether or not they last the rest of their life. Speaking about consequences, this just happened, why is he not in jail? He’s responsible for the death of one woman and the injury of others, did he just pay a fine and they called that a day? Thirdly, he should not be teaching! He may have the knowledge but apparently he doesn’t understand the practices. Did the school not have better candidates? Also he decided non-disclosure was his best bet? What did he think was going to happen when people found out? I don’t agree with the continual suffering of an individual for one mistake, but he needs to find another way to continue his involvement in this passion if he so wants, understanding that he can’t ever hold his old status again.
Oof, this is rough. I really can't see any good reason why the school would hire a man who has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a work setting. Even if this guy has valuable lessons to pass on to the next generation of filmmakers, it still does not change the fact that he is pleading guilty to a felony charge. On the flip side of this situation, if I were Sedrish, I would definitely not want to be teaching at a college about film safety right now. There is no way Sedrish could have thought this situation would have ended well for him, and it obviously didn't. With the amount of negative press that has been going around since this unfortunate incident, you would think Sedrish would want to lay low and stay out of the spotlight. Taking this job teaching at a college did the exact opposite. I see what Isaac is saying above, but I don't think this man should be compensated to contribute his story even if he has something valuable to teach. There are many other UPMs out there that are not facing felony charges for murder that can speak about film safety.
You always think about giving people second chances, but it is much more difficult when the first chance that was offered, required the loss of life, because someone didn’t do their job well enough. To then think that Sedrish was going to be teaching a lesson on set safety, is kind of like beating a dead horse with a stick, it’s already dead. It almost reminds of some stories my dad has told me from one of his first college classes. The professor when he introduced himself, said he had failed every business he ever started, and he was teaching a business course. Kind of redundant at this point. So why would you hire someone who you know has failed at the skillsets that are required for them to teach others? If someone is willing to break the rules once, what kind of attitude are you teaching the students to bend the rules once? It will only be able to grow from there once becomes twice.
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