It’s not surprising that a college president who insults a parent of his students is willing to put those same students in danger. If the parent is a dummy, the students can’t be that far off, right?

No wonder Jerry Falwell, Jr. is already inviting students back to Liberty University. While classes will be online, students are now encouraged to return to campus and stay in their dorms while faculty members are expected to be in their offices.

We’re talking around 5,000 people in one area.

Never before have so many people been eligible for a Darwin Award.

“I think we have a responsibility to our students — who paid to be here, who want to be here, who love it here — to give them the ability to be with their friends, to continue their studies, enjoy the room and board they’ve already paid for and to not interrupt their college life,” Falwell said. … “I think we, in a way, are protecting the students by having them on campus together,” he said. “Ninety-nine percent of them are not at the age to be at risk and they don’t have conditions that put them at risk.”

He says this like someone took the college experience away from the students and he’s courageously fighting back on their behalf. That’s not the case. And his ignorance of science leads him to believe COVID-19 only affects you when you hit a certain age. That’s not true. Even if younger people are less likely to die from the virus, they could easily become vectors and spread the disease to others they come into contact with.

What would Falwell do if those parents and grandparents and pool boys got sick?

As we mentioned the other day, not all faculty members are on board with this. Speaking on behalf of several colleagues, English professor Marybeth Davis Baggett recently published an essay urging Liberty’s Board of Trustees to override Falwell’s decision. (She was able to speak out, perhaps, because she was already planning to leave Liberty at the end of the school year.)

There may not be a legal way to prevent this, either. Even if students are returning to campus, they won’t be congregating in large lecture halls. Falwell says he’ll still follow state law and limit in-person meetings to 10 people. But when far more students than that live in a dorm, the number of interactions will inevitably go up.

While the world self-quarantines for the sake of ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities, Falwell wants to put everyone in danger for no reason other than to suit his own ego.

What else would you expect from a guy who said just last week that COVID-19 was nothing more than an “attempt to get Trump“?

