WSU professor placed on leave for gun comment that she called a joke

A professor at Wright State University was escorted off campus last week after police were made aware about a text message she sent about a gun.

Kristine Scordo, a professor in the WSU college of nursing and health, was placed on paid leave Wednesday after Wright State attorney Michael Manzler showed the text messages to officers, a police report shows.

The police report says officers were shown multiple text messages by Scordo, including one that said “something to the effect of obtaining a gun with no direct threats stated followed by laughing emoji’s from someone else and then two lengthy messages.”

Manzler asked police to escort Scordo off campus from room 158 of University Hall, the report states.

When escorted to her car by police, Scordo said she was confused by the action.

She told police that her comment over text message was “clearly a joke.” Scordo said her comment was made in reference to the perception that “all the university does is have meetings after meetings and she can’t get any of her work done,” the report states..

After Scordo left campus, police spoke again with Manzler and Deborah Ulrich, interim dean of Wright State’s college of nursing and health. Ulrich told police that she “didn’t feel very safe knowing that Ms. Scordo would say something of that nature,” the report states.

When reached by phone Monday, Scordo said her “main concern is for the welfare of the students in the program” and them being able to graduate on time. She declined to comment further on the text messages or the incident.

Wright State spokesman Seth Bauguess declined to comment on the incident. The university notified students and employees Wednesday evening via email.

The email states that an “individual” was escorted off campus after police received a report that someone had potentially violated the school’s “violence in the workplace policy.” Scordo was placed on paid leave, pending an investigation into the incident, the email states.

“Campus police do not anticipate any further potential threat to campus safety arising from this incident,” the email said.

Sarah Cavender contributed to this story.

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