An email sent to students by a University of Maryland official that cites the Trayvon Martin shooting as evidence "it is legal to hunt down and kill American children in Florida" is being blasted as the latest evidence of a left-wing bias on campus.

The email, from William Dorland, director of the school's Honors College, starts by welcoming students back to campus, but then quickly veers into politics.

"This year, we learned that it is legal to hunt down and kill American children in Florida," it reads, in a reference to the trial of George Zimmerman, who was cleared of all charges in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The email went out to all students in the Honors College.

The political language continued:

"This year, the most activist Supreme Court in the history of the United States and radical factions of gun owners, gun manufacturers, and marijuana users are challenging the very fabric of the nation..."

Dorland then invites students to attend a lecture by former NAACP chairman Julian Bond.

The email comes on the heels of a host of allegations of bias on college campuses around the country this fall -- from a case at UNC Chapel Hill in which funding was cut for two conservative speakers to appear on campus, to an incident at the University of Kansas, where a professor said he hoped the next shooting victims would be children of NRA members.

In the Maryland case, Jim Purtilo, a University of Maryland computer science professor, said the comments struck him as inappropriate.

"It's over the top. But very much business as usual on this campus," he said.

Dorland, reached by phone, told FoxNews.com that his goal was merely to stir student interest in the Julian Bond speaking event.

"I didn't regard it as a political statement, I regarded it as trying to stir some student interest in an activity going on on campus," Dorland told FoxNews.com.

He said that he did receive complaints.

"There were three students and a faculty member who asked me not to use such violent or inappropriate language in the future, and I apologized to them because I didn't want to offend anybody. But I did want to stir things up," he said.

But Purtilo said that he complained to Dorland by email and that Dorland never apologized to him. Instead, said Purtilo, Dorland responded by defending the accuracy of his line about the Trayvon Martin shooting.

Some students reached by FoxNews.com were supportive of Dorland.

"[Dorland] is a great academic and has done great things for our university," said Ben Kramer, president of the College Democrats at the University of Maryland.

"While I do not agree with his choice of words [in the Trayvon Martin reference], I respect and agree with his efforts to foster a dialogue about contentious issues."

Others took more offense.

"Sending politically charged emails like this not only alienates students, but also adds to our toxic political discourse," Ross Marchand, president of the campus Students for Liberty, said.

Caroline Carlson, chairwoman of the UMD College Republicans, agreed.

"Claiming that it is 'legal to hunt down and kill American children in Florida' is stretching the truth, and frankly, we believe Professor Dorland should be above making those types of false statements in what is presumed to be a factual Honors College email."

Dorland defended his use of that line.

"I think it's stirring the pot," Dorland said about his email. "I think, factually, the sentence -- it may be strained and polemic or something -- but it is roughly at least what many people would say was the outcome of the verdict [of the Trayvon Martin case]. I'm not going to avow or disavow the position because it doesn't really matter what I think."

Purtilo, however, says that the incident is indicative of liberal bias he sees on the campus every day. He related one story that he had seen.

"I was on a committee for a very prestigious award on campus, which basically gives a free ride to the selected student, and I remember our committee once interviewing a young woman from one of the more rural counties of the state. And she was poised and articulate and tremendously well prepared, top scores and maxed out SAT and everything... but she made no secret about her religious views, and she asked about things like whether we had a drug- and alcohol-free dorm hall," Purtilo said.

"The committee's conclusion was, 'oh, she has very strict views, very rigid views -- she would not be comfortable here'... you often hear code words like those, which really mean that the person is right-of-center politically."

Dorland dismissed the idea that his emailed quote was indicative of general political bias on campus.

"I don't really want to suggest to you that I'm backing down, but I will tell you that we've had speakers here from AEI, from the CATO Institute -- and [Arizona Sen. John] McCain was invited to be here."

"In my job here I'm pretty apolitical," he added. "You can ask the students. I will take the side of Pope Benedict on an argument, and the next day take the side of a new Pope. You know, the intellectual position in the world is to engage people and get them to talk about what they believe in," he said.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/09/26/school-official-tells-students-trayvon-martin-proved-it-is-legal-to-hunt/?intcmp=latestnews

Disgusting.

The political language continued:

"This year, the most activist Supreme Court in the history of the United States and radical factions of gun owners, gun manufacturers, and marijuana users are challenging the very fabric of the nation..."

Disgusting.

Marijuana users are partners/ in league with or are radical gun owners and gun manufacturers???? Well, if they are, they are certainly not 'Left' then, as this Dorkland is alleged to be a Leftist!
Yureka! We have a new species on the political fringe: right wing radical marijuana gun users, and manufacturers! Would anyone want to use a gun made by marijuana users...like, would it even work and if it did, what would it fire...or would one press the trigger and inhale from the barrel...One might be better of using the special gun and specially made suppository bullets by Preparation H, for those days when you have to deal with one inflamed a-hole after another regardless of their being right-wing or left-wing nuts...Praise da lord an' pass da joint!

brava for Dorland,,,,,

seems this story though stems mainly from fox news,, with such a widely submitted 'email', seems Id be able to find it somewhere on the web and read it for myself IN CONTEXT,,,,,

some definitions of HUNT:

to pursue with intent to capture <hunted the escapees>

b : to search out : seek


to attempt to find something


some definitions of KILL:

to cause the death of (a person, animal, or plant) : to end the life of (someone or something)

,,which one did good boy Zimmerman NOT receive legal justification in doing?



he should be corrected though, it showed its legal to hunt MINORS,, as the victim was older than 14 but younger than 18,,,a child is defined as 14 or under,, except in immigration laws where they are any unmarried person under the age of 21

teacher says its ok to case houses and break into them should be title


or someone beating your head into cement is no reason to defend yourself

Show me when in the state law books does it say it is legal to hunt a child......... You can't because it's not in there.

He was found not guilty by a jury of his peers and I don't see anything in the charges about him being charges with hunting a child.

This so called teacher should be ashamed of himself and fired or he can write the truth, in Florida it is legal to defend yourself against a punk with a long history of violence and drug abuse who was expelled from school for violence and drugs and who was so out of control and violent that his own mother couldn't control him.

Or it could accurately read that Burglary rates are at an all time low in the area Zimmerman defended himself in. An area that had a really bad string of residential burglaries that were happing on a regular basis that magically stopped after the criminal Martin was killed in self defense, which means he was probably behind the string of burglaries.

Zimmerman deserves a medal. Maybe the Congressional Medal of Honor or the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He should also get a medal from the taxpayers for whom he save a lot of money from future legal bills and jail, prison and parole time. If he lived this incident alone would have landed him in prison for a very long time.