The University of Maine dropped from a lecture series a speaker who has three times been charged with shoplifting.
The inaugural Stephen E. King Chair Lecture at the University of Maine, originally set for Wednesday, Oct. 25, has been indefinitely postponed, according to the school’s website.
“When it is rescheduled, it will be with a different speaker,” UMaine spokeswoman Margaret Nagle said on Tuesday.
The announcement came days after the planned lecturer, acclaimed educator Nancie Atwell of the Center for Teaching and Learning in Edgecomb, was charged with misdemeanor theft and violating conditions of release after allegedly stealing a $28 dog leash from Ames True Value in Wiscasset. The university announced the change the day after the Bangor Daily News reported the most recent charge.
Atwell, who founded the K-8 Center for Teaching and Learning and is now the school’s writing support teacher, in 2015 won the $1 million prize Global Teacher Prize.
The Stephen E. King Chair in Literature is an endowed faculty position at UMaine that was established with a $1 million gift from the Harold Alfond Foundation in honor of King’s substantial body of work and his creative impact. The King lecture, a planned yearly event, will highlight people who promote the humanities, and help students become “smarter, more empathetic, book-loving adults,” according to the UMaine website. Atwell’s talk was to be called “The Power of Stories.”
Atwell pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft in June 2016 after police said security video showed her taking a $14.99 blouse off a hanger at Renys in Damariscotta. Under terms of a plea agreement in that case, Atwell was required to commit no further crimes for two years, undergo a psychological evaluation, complete 100 hours of community service and prove that she is donating the $1 million prize money to the Center for Teaching and Learning. Had that happened, the charge would have been dismissed in June 2018.
Atwell was previously charged with theft stemming from a 2014 incident at Bliss Boutique on Exchange Street in Portland. A clerk at Cumberland County Superior Court did not have any information on the status of that case. The court system seals all dismissed cases.
A lawyer for Atwell could not be immediately reached.
— BDN writer Jake Bleiberg contributed reporting.
