College fires professor who claimed Sandy Hook massacre was staged

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — A Florida college has officially fired a professor who claimed the massacre of children at a Connecticut elementary school was staged.


Florida Atlantic University said in a release that School of Communication and Multimedia Studies professor James Tracy was served a notice of termination Tuesday. The school sent Tracy a notice of proposed discipline last month, with 10 days to respond. School officials didn't say whether he responded.

Although the school gave no reason for the action, the parents of one student killed at Sandy Hook recently claimed in a Florida newspaper opinion piece that Tracy was taunting them.

In early 2013, following the Sandy Hook school shooting massacre in December 2012 in which 20 first-graders and six adults were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., Tracy began writing on his personal blog suggesting the tragedy was staged and a complete hoax.

"Truthers" and other government conspiracy theorists generally agree that all or most national tragedies are orchestrated by the government for the purpose of inciting fear in order to gain or maintain control over large segments of the population.

Tracy was reprimanded in 2013 for writing in his blog that the Sandy Hook killing was staged, and he has questioned accounts of other mass slayings.

An email seeking comment from Tracy wasn't immediately answered Tuesday.