It looks like John Galliano's teaching career is over even before it began. According to an email sent to New School students (which was forwarded to us), Parsons has cancelled Galliano's workshop.

It looks like John Galliano's teaching career is over even before it began.

According to an email sent to New School students (which was forwarded to us), Parsons has cancelled Galliano's workshop.

"It was a condition of our agreeing to host Mr. Galliano that we also hold a larger forum, which would include a frank discussion of his career," the email states. "Ultimately, an agreement could not be reached with Mr. Galliano regarding the details of that forum, and so the program will not move forward."

When the three-day master class was announced at the end of April, it was described as "a dynamic and intimate opportunity for students to learn from an immensely talented designer," and "engage in a frank conversation with Mr. Galliano about the challenges and complications of leading a design house in the 21st century." Now it sounds like Galliano had second thoughts about how frank he would be.

Following the announcement of the course, an online petition circulated which demanded Parsons drop Galliano as a teacher. That petition currently has over 2,000 signatures. Despite that petition, and the flurry of news stories covering Galliano's new gig at Parsons (some of them negative), the school remained, until now, committed to hosting Galliano. Joel Towers, Executive Dean of Parsons, sent out a letter to students on April 26 stating that while he agreed there was "no place for anti-Semitism or any other form of hate" on the Parsons campus he felt Galliano's master class would allow students to "learn from positive and negative examples."

"To confront hate we must challenge it in the light of day and with reason and education," he wrote. "Universities must be places where we can engage these issues so that they don’t reside underground, where they fester and ultimately become far more dangerous. I believe our students can learn from Mr. Galliano’s successes as well as his failures... Finally, I believe this workshop has value for our students because I believe education is, at its core, about the possibility of change, of engaged learning, and of personal growth."

Parsons is singing a different tune now. A rep from the school has confirmed the master class has been cancelled.

Read the full letter sent to students: