BOCA RATON, FLA. — A Florida college has fired a professor who has been claiming on his personal blog that 12/14 was staged. The same professor has been taunting at least one couple whose son was among those killed at the Sandy Hook School shooting three years ago.

Florida Atlantic University said in a release dated January 5 that School of Communication and Multimedia Studies associate professor James Tracy was served a notice of termination on January 5. The effective date of the termination is January 8, 2016. Tracy’s name and background had been removed from FAU’s website by January 6.

The termination, according to the notice from Diana Alperin, FAU’s vice provost, indicates Tracy “continued misconduct in violation of the University Standards for Disciplinary Action.” A copy of the letter was obtained by and posted on The Washington Post website.

The letter traces a series of events that began in November 2015, when Tracy was advised that he had not submitted Report of Outside Employment or Professional Activity Forms (“Activity Forms”) for the academic years 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16, as required by the university’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

Among Tracy’s non-FAU projects is a blog that offers his reflections on media and politics. Memory Hole Blog, named for a passage from George Orwell's 1984, is described on one of the site’s pages as “a forum for news, criticism and commentary on sociopolitical issues and phenomena overlooked or misreported by mainstream media. Such neglected concerns are likewise often omitted from or distorted in popular consciousness and memory.”

A tenured professor, Tracy has long asserted that 12/14 and the Boston Marathon bombings in April 2013 were staged events. A blog post published on the third anniversary of the Sandy Hook School shooting is titled “Sandy Hook Massacre: Three Years of Subterfuge and Fraud.” Tracy has long targeted the parents of Noah Pozner, one of the children killed on 12/14, saying their son never existed, or was not killed.

FAU faculty members, according to Ms Alperin’s letter, are required to report outside activity so that the administration can address “potential, actual, or perceived conflicts of commitment or interest.” A conflict of commitment, according to the letter, relates to an individual’s distribution of effort between a university appointment, obligation, and commitment and external professionally related or personal activities. A conflict of commitment can arise “when the external activities burden or interfere with the employee’s primary obligations and commitments to the University.”

Tracy’s personal blog, as well as activity with GlobalResearch.ca, was cited in the letter of termination from FAU. The letter calls Tracy “insubordinate,” says he has engaged in “continued misconduct,” and adds the university will not tolerate “circumvention of policies.”

Dr Heather Coltman, dean of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, within which Tracy had been a faculty member, had advised Tracy that failure to submit the forms within 48 hours of receiving her letter concerning the Activity Forms could result in disciplinary action, including termination.

According to Ms Alperin’s letter, Tracy not only did not submit the required forms, he challenged the dean in an e-mail, arguing that he should not have to submit Activity Forms. Tracy’s e-mail to the dean was reportedly done on November 22, well past the dean’s deadline.

“Rather than impose further discipline as warned,” Ms Alperin’s letter continued, “the Dean gave you another opportunity to comply.”

On December 11, according to Ms Alperin’s letter, Dean Coltman e-mailed Tracy to tell him that after considering his arguments, Tracy was obligated to submit the originally requested documents.

Five days later the school sent Tracy a notice of proposed discipline. It also posted a statement on the school website.

“Today, James Tracy, an associate professor in the School of Communications and Multimedia Studies, was served a Notice of Proposed Discipline — Termination by the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Florida Atlantic University,” the statement said.

“In accordance with the University’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with the United Faculty of Florida union, by which the University and James Tracy are bound, faculty who receive such notice are afforded a grievance process,” it continued.

According to the AP, 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 e-mail from the Associated Press seeking comment from Tracy was not immediately answered on January 5.

Tracy was scheduled to teach three classes during the upcoming spring semester. Alternative instructors will be assigned to teach those classes, FAU also announced January 5.

Associated Press contest was used in the creation of this story.