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Art School Exit-stential

There’s basically nothing about this story in the current Portland Mercury that isn’t hilarious:

Bob Averill’s classmates at the Art Institute of Portland had finished up their work in a character development class on November 8, and were chatting to pass the time until class was over. The discussion moved toward spirituality. Averill, a Game Art Design student and a devoted atheist—he even runs a blog called Portland Atheist—sidled over and joined the conversation.

It was the last time he’d be in an Art Institute class—within two weeks, he was expelled, less than a year before he’d hoped to graduate.

In the classroom that day, Averill says one young woman was talking about her belief in energy layers and astral beings.

“I jokingly asked her if she believed in leprechauns. It turns out, she does. They live on another energy layer,” Averill wrote in notes to himself later that day. [My Emphasis] “In the interest of bringing my own view to the discussion, I began to ask her how she knew these things. Again I know all too well that people can be sensitive about their spiritual beliefs, so I was pretty much walking on glass as I did so.”

Averill says he wasn’t trying to disprove the other student’s religious beliefs, but “to convince her not to insist that they were scientifically proven.”

The student, apparently offended, complained to the teacher. Averill was called into a meeting that evening, he says, with the Art Institute’s dean of education, associate dean, and the dean of student affairs.

According to Averill, he was told the meeting was “because of my altercation with [the other student].” Averill says he pointed out that he’d “only offered a different viewpoint in a discussion that [my classmate] had started.”

“They didn’t respond well,” Averill told the Mercury. “Their mantra was ‘no discussing religion in school,’ which is fine except that I did not initiate the conversation, she had.” Averill was suspended for four days, until a judicial hearing with the dean of student affairs.

Well, he sounds like a calm and reasonable young man! Let’s see what his blog has to say…

Hold on now! Before you go and get the wrong idea, this ISN’T another rant about why religion is bad, or why it’s wrong. Of course, it IS bad, and it IS wrong. But this is so blindingly obvious that it no longer needs to be said. Instead, this is a direct attack on you, the religious person. The argument? That your failure to reject religion indicates you are colossally, irredeemably stupid.

[…]

I refuse to respect religious beliefs, and I refuse to respect people who hold them.

Your willful ignorance is inexcusable, and it disgusts me.

What could possibly go wrong in a conversation between him and someone who strongly believes in leprechauns?

For bonus laughs, check out the conversation on the Something Awful forums, where Bob was (is?) a member.

  1. Stan says:

    Amusingly enough, Bob was a regular on a message board I frequent too. Small world.

    He’s utterly, gibberingly insane, by the way.

  2. Doomscheissah says:

    Art Institute of Portland. Hasn’t anyone torn that place down yet? John Kitzhaber needs a new living space with a real good view.

  3. Dustin says:

    Wow, I thought this perv was a too good to be true dousche bag made up by you sneaky bloggers simply for my entertainment. My condolonces on your being a real person.

  4. T says:

    Bob: Well, there’s no way of verifying that because you deleted your blog, dude. Second, all these mean, nasty people who are talking about you wouldn’t know your name if you’d simply shut up. It’s not terribly hard; you just stop talking. So please, Bob, save us this bullshit about how the mean-spirited Internet trolls are ruining your life. You are an atheist, right? Thus, you must understand how utterly insignificant you are.

  5. Bob says:

    Also, accusing a guy of lewd acts because he bullshitted to that effect on a messageboard that is by definition for bullshitting….Sufficed to say, I did nothing of the sort.

    I guess there’s not alot I can do about it. Just realize that you’re destroying someone’s life when you repeat stuff like that.

  6. Bob says:

    If you actually check my blog, you’ll learn that I DID NOT WRITE THAT. That is SOMEONE ELSES ARTICLE that I was quoting, and I stated this very clearly above it.

    Misrepresenting that as my writing is kind of a shitty thing to do.

  7. Doomscheissah says:

    Or for people who want to kidnap superheroes, Timothy.

  8. Timothy says:

    Totally. But horn-rimmed glasses are for sexy librarians!

  9. Tyler says:

    Can we all agree that art school is for douchebags?

  10. Blaser says:

    Hey, wearing a trench coat doesn’t make you a douche … writing about your underage girlfriend who is so “mature” that she can sound as emo as any art school cutter makes you a douche. And an asshat.

    He probably has those thick, horn-rimmed glasses, too.

  11. Sho says:

    The whole thread is hilarious, especially the part when he reveals that he e-mailed a photo of his penis to his underage girlfriend and then kept arguing that he isn’t a pedophile.

  12. T says:

    The guy sounds like an asshat, the sort of fellow who tries a little too hard to be edgy. He probably cuts himself too. And wears a trench coat. Douche.

  13. Laura says:

    I know that guy! In the aftermath of the Columbine shootings he made a first-person shooter starring my high school and got expelled.

  14. Ian says:

    Oh, and this thread, which is supposedly by the same guy, must be seen to be believed.

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