(JTA) — Fashion designer John Galliano will not teach at a New York fashion school following a student protest.
The Parsons The New School For Design reversed its decision to bring in Galliano to teach a class after being presented a petition against his hiring with 2,000 signatures, the Forward reported, noting that the protest was led by Jewish students.
Galliano was fired as the top designer at Christian Dior two years ago after being arrested for making anti-Semitic statements at a Paris bar.
“We do not want money from our tuition going to this kind of person,” the petition reads. “We feel like we’ve been slapped in the face by our school. There should be no room for this kind of person as a staff member on the faculty at Parsons.”
The school confirmed the cancellation in a statement.
“We could not reach consensus with Mr. Galliano on the conditions of this conversation,” Deborah Kirschner, a Parsons spokeswoman, told the Forward in the statement. “The program could not move forward.”
Galliano, a British national, was filmed at a Paris bar in March 2011 stating his love for Adolf Hitler and told people he believed to be Jewish that their mothers should have been gassed. He has apologized for his statements, blaming his outbursts on addictions to drugs and alcohol.
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