Shooting Victim’s Family Wants Leniency For Professor Who Joked About Aurora

Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy Professor Gregory Sullivan has “suffered enough,” the mother of one of his students told Newsday in an interview.

Sullivan came under fire after making light of the Aurora, Colorado shooting which took the life of Gordon Cowden, the father of one of his students.

"It was a dumb mistake," Gordon Cowden’s ex-wife Melissa told the paper. "I've made plenty of dumb mistakes in my life. This professor has suffered enough," she reportedly added.

Sullivan was put on administrative leave following a comment reportedly made during the screening of a documentary. According to The New York Times, Sullivan joked, “If someone with orange hair appears in the corner of the room, run for the exit.”

It was a reference, it seems, to alleged perpetrator James Holmes, who dyed his hair orange, before barging into a theater and fatally shooting Cowden and 11 others.

The grieving student left the room, and was visibly upset, according to The Times. Sullivan reportedly said he was unaware that his student had a lost a parent in the massacre, though USMMA sent a memo out to create awareness on campus, and the victim's son and two of his classmates had been given permission to miss Sullivan's class for a funeral.

According to Melissa Cowden, her children, including her 20-year-old son Weston, who is Sullivan’s student, believe that Sullivan was remorseful, and that dismissing him would “only add to their pain,” Newsday reported.

"There's been enough suffering,” she reportedly said.