I'm just wondering how this project was able to pass the University's ethics approval process...or does it even have one?

Alan, Montreal, Canada

Modern so-called 'education' is truly pathetic. Here in the US, the professors are always regarded as tending to be 'liberal', but the real 'product' they turn out at the end of the day is fascism. This notion that it is okay for students to leer at disabled people is typical. In the US, people with college degrees are much more prejudiced against minorities that are the less 'educated'. Education is no longer intended to impart tolerance and clear thinking, but it is only a tool for the elite-like types, used merely to distinguish themselves from the rest of the people. 'Education' should be taxed very heavily.

blues, Northampton, US, Massachusetts

Academic freedom neither infers a free for all nor does it presume a right to humiliate or otherwise produce material that is not academically defensible. And the two professors who criticized this piece of film trash were engaging in their own academic freedom which was also apparently denied. Is QUT claiming that anytime a professor does not accept student work and/or gives a student a lowered grade based on a poorly done project, that student can then claim his/her academic freedom has been compromised?

QUT has also overlooked the entire concept of informed consent whereby the PARTICIPANTS in a study MUST understand and agree to participate in the study. Any 'study' must also weigh benefits of the study to risks to participants. I wonder how QUT handled this basic requirement human subject study?

Dr. Lou, Amherst, New York

The main issue is not whether the thesis work was in bad taste. It is that merely criticizing the film is not violating the grad student's academic freedom whereas suspending the faculty critics definitely is violating theirs.

Do these administartors has no sense of irony?

John Mullen, Gloucester, MA USA

Preventing the film the film from being made or shown would be an infringement of academic freedom. Criticizing the film is not. However, suspending the two professors for criticizing the film is an infringement of academic freedom.

Peter Manzari, New York City, USA

If this happened in the US, these students would be arrested on a variety of criminal charges designed to protect individuals with disabilities from abuse, harassment and exploitation.

It is mind-boggling to me that the people speaking out against the cruel treatment of individuals with disabilities are the ones who have been punished.

And the parents and guardians who gave permission for this horrorshow? In the US, they would be immediately stripped of any rights to care for the individuals with disabilities, as they clearly lack any ability to protect them from those who seek to exploit and harm them.

RW, Seattle, WA

How can the film be judged without viewing it? The article is hardly explicit about what it contains, nor the context in which the events take place. It's difficult to follow who made the statement that Shakespeare was no better than some reality TV show, who was outraged by the statement, and what this had to do with the student film.

The student filmmaker had the backing of a disabled people's advocacy group and the parents of the participants. Is it possible that it's not as "bad" as the article makes i out to be?

LongTom, Boston, MA

Has anyone noticed that the student in question here does not have a voice in this article. While the writer of the article and the professors focused on have their opinions about the student's intentions clearly portrayed, the student is left silent.

The student's intentions could have been many things that have nothing to do with his desire to ridicule these people. Why hasn't anyone asked him what he was trying to do? Wouldn't that clear up whether we should be disgusted by him and these parents and guardians or feeling something else entirely?

Emily S., Chicago, Illinois

This is one of the most appalling things I have heard of - ever! It is one thing to follow the tasteless genre of American TV where people make asses of themselves to get a few moments of fame - they know what they are getting into. To use mentally disabled people in such a fashion is inhuman and inhumane. Are there people one can write to in Australia to protest such vileness?

T. Mikel Longbrake, Virginia

T. Mikel Longrake, Charlottesville, Virginia

It doesn't take very brave or intelligent persons to mock and make fun of the less fortunate.

Joe, Elkridge, USA

If Asberger's Syndrome leads to a marked deficiency in social skills then every Australian I ever met had it.

eric, harrogate, uk

The film was obviously peddling the dehumanization of disabled men, making them objects of ridicule, and exposing them to harm for the entertainment of an audience. Stripping people of humanity in this way has a brutal connotation, and it reminds me of certain aspects of early Nazi propaganda.

Copeland, Fort Worth,

The full approval of the parents and guardians?"

God help us. This is cruel beyond belief. Disabled
individiuals have it hard enough trying to cope in life
without having to deal with the knowledge that there
are people capable of making fun of their situations.

What ever happened to the Golden Rule -- treat
people the same way that you would like to be
treated? What worse feeling could there be than to
be on the receiving end of this cruelty.

Shame on the filmakers and the parents and guardians.

Can't anyone intervene?

Paul Miller, Costa Mesa, CA

As the parent of an autistic child, and a progressive, I'm torn but still disgusted.

Disgusted at what the student found 'entertaining'.

Disgusted at professors who try and silence stundents.

Disgusted at a University that would suspend teachers for exercising the same rights that the University said they were violating in the first place.

Shame on all of them.

Cid, Redmond, WA

What a triumph for Australia. You've managed to be more ignorant and tasteless than Americans. Congratulations.

fred bloggs, Podunk, US

Wow, i don't realy know what to say about this.... I guess academic freedom is academic freedom, but if that is the case for the PhD student, why then are the professors censured?

A. Sheehan, California, USA