A doctor employed by the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine will soon be out of a job after she referred to First Lady Michelle Obama as “monkey face.”
“We are beginning the process to terminate Dr. Michelle Herren’s faculty appointment,” the university’s spokesperson, Mark Couch, told the New York Daily News. “We’ve had several students express concern through our office of diversity.”
The university’s decision to terminate Herren comes after she posted the racist comment in response to a woman praising Mrs. Obama online.
“Doesn’t seem to be speaking too eloquently here, thank god we can’t hear her!” Herren wrote under an unflattering photo she posted of the First Lady. “Harvard??? That’s a place for “entitled” folks said all the liberals!”
She continued, “Monkey face and poor ebonic English!!! There! I feel better and am still not racist!!! Just calling it like it is!”
Herren works at Denver Health Medical Center in the children’s unit as a pediatric anesthesiologist and holds a non-paid assistant professor position at the university.
“Your comments and tone are harmful to the students we teach and the patients we care for. Your derogatory, insensitive remarks have resulted in harm to others in our community and beyond,” UC Dean of Medicine John J. Reilly said in a letter to Herren.
But while Herron will no longer keep her assistant professor position, it’s not yet clear whether or not she will keep her job at Denver Health, as the center recently said it’s “bumping up against a first amendment right,” noting that they are “working very hard to resolve this situation.”
A spokesperson for the center, however, said, “Until further notice, Michelle Herren, MD, will not be seeing patients or providing anesthesia services at Denver Health Medical Center.”