Hugo Schwyzer, the professor who taught "Navigating Pornography" at Pasadena City College (PCC), has admitted to having sex with students while he was their teacher, the Pasadena Star-News reported.
The admission came in a blog post on his own personal website where he validated the claims of one of his students with whom he had sex with. Going under the pseudonym "Meagan," the student posted Sept. 1 on Tumblr that she was angry with Schwyzer for denying he had ever slept with his students.
In the post she said the professor's friends were harassing her and were threatening to reveal her real name. She said she was in his History class and detailed how they met and quickly began a sexual relationship. She also said she did not doubt he had other student sex partners.
"Until recently, I maintained that I had stopped having sex with students enrolled in my classes in 1998," he wrote. "That is not true; I started sleeping with students again in 2008."
He said Meagan's claims are "mostly true" and that he did, in fact, have sex with more than one of his students.
"I have no intention of naming names or of discussing numbers," he wrote. "I did indeed have sex with more than one adult student. There is no excuse for this behavior, and I do not expect anyone to defend it."
He told the Star-News his admission was apart of Rosh Hashanah, a time of the year in the Jewish faith for atonement. He is also admitting himself into a psychiatric hospital for the fifth time this summer.
"I want people to have compassion for me and to recognize that if they are frustrated or angry with me I did ... things because I am sick," he said. "I'm a fraud."
In his post he acknowledged his admission would have an effect on his employment with PCC. The school's general counsel Gail Cooper released a statement a day after the professor's blog post stating PCC would investigate his conduct. If confirmed true by the school, termination is likely for Schwyzer.
"Such conduct, if confirmed as true, would be a grave violation of college policy warranting termination," the statement read. "The college does not in any way condone or tolerate such conduct by any faculty member. All of us in the college are outraged by Mr. Schwyzer's statements about his conduct."
Schwyzer was a self-proclaimed "male feminist" and advocated men do such things as date women their own age. He told the Star-News he "damaged the brand of male feminism."
In his "Navigating Porn" class, he brought in adult film stars such as James Deen and Jessica Drake as guests.
Schwyzer is currently on medical leave from the school and Cooper said she could not disclose the reason, but that faculty members on medical leave often do not visit campus. He is also "seriously considering" filing a claim of psychiatric disability.