In the lecture, Professor Tom DeDonno, chair of the Computer Information Management Department at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, said the January 6, 2021 uprising was staged to implicate Trump supporters, the Capitol Police’s murder of Ashli Babbitt during the attack a “joke” and said it was all part of a larger campaign by the Chinese military to impose an “atheist theocracy” on the US
The course that included the pre-recorded lecture was Introduction to Video Game Design, which is intended to teach video game design concepts such as strategies, scripting, and game history, according to the course syllabus.
Saddleback, a public community college with approximately 20,000 students, initiated the investigation following a complaint from a Long Beach student who also contacted the Post about the lecture. Reporters at the Post were able to replay the talk this week before it was removed.
Jennie McCue, a spokesperson for Saddleback College, said the school is investigating the student’s complaint. She said it is unknown how long the investigation will take.
“The inappropriate content on Jan. 6 has already been removed” from the lecture, McCue said.
Screenshot of slide from Intro to Video Game Design lecture by Saddleback College Professor Tom DeDonno.
McCue said DeDonno still works at the school but could not comment on previous complaints against him because it was a personnel issue.
DeDonno has gone unanswered for several phone calls and emails for this story.
The lecture in question is about the role that military strategy plays in the development of video games such as Age of Empires and Civilization. It was apparently originally recorded on February 17, 2021, according to the document name and statements DeDonno makes at the beginning of the talk.
The student who complained about the video said it’s not uncommon for remote classes to contain lessons reused from previous semesters. According to the student, there were about 20 students in the video game design class.
In the lecture, which lasts just over an hour and a half, DeDonno presents detailed slides and talks on the design elements of strategy games, often based on real historical events, such as the battles of the Spartans. against the Persian Empire or the Scottish insurgent William Wallace. For much of the talk, DeDonno goes into detail about why wars have been fought historically, as well as the concepts of strategic goals and tactical advantages.
When the talk lasted about an hour and 15 minutes, DeDonno set up a slide titled “Modern Day Warfare.”
“We are now in a new war,” DeDonno says. “The only problem is it doesn’t look good for us.”
Over the next 10 minutes, DeDonno described to his students how he believes the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol was a “false flag operation” that is part of a current attack on this country by the Chinese military, which “has taken complete control over our mass media, our mainstream media,” he said during the lecture.
DeDonno told his students through slides and his own statements that the Chinese military is using “racism” to “divide and conquer” the US so that it can impose an “atheistic government theocracy” on the country. DeDonno also insisted that the Chinese military is using fifth-generation mobile networks known as 5G to “spy on Africans”, colluding with Mexican drug cartels to flood American streets with fentanyl and hinting that COVID-19 is a biological weapon. is that was intentionally released by the Chinese government.
One of the ways DeDonno claimed China attacked the US is by using left-wing forces to stage the Jan. 6 Capitol riot as if it were being carried out by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
As evidence, DeDonno said video footage of the attack showed people storming the Capitol with helmets, although “Trump supporters don’t wear helmets,” he insisted. DeDonno also said that the murder of Ashli Babbitt by the Capitol police was a “staged murder.”
There is no factual evidence for DeDonno’s claims. The US Department of Justice has indicted more than 900 people for crimes related to the Capitol attack. More than 325 of the accused have since pleaded guilty, Politico said.
The Long Beach student, who asked not to be identified due to the possibility of retaliation, watched the talk on Sept. 24. The student took DeDonno’s course because they “thought it would be fun.” The student said they hadn’t seen DeDonno say anything offensive in previous lectures.
“What is happening?” the student said they wondered when DeDonno started talking about January 6. “This is unprofessional, and I can’t be the only student who felt uncomfortable.”
That day, the student emailed Penelope Skaff, Saddleback College’s dean of counseling, stating that the material was not appropriate for a course, let alone a course dealing with video game design.
“At no time are we allowed to discuss anything like the January 6 attack, or individual liberties and vaccines, and frankly it’s disappointing that this person is a representative of this school,” the student said in the email.
According to emails from the student, Skaff responded within the hour, saying she appreciated the student’s “thorough” email and would share the concerns with DeDonno’s dean.
Although Skaff told the student that someone from the college would follow up next week, the student said no school official has been contacted since that first email on Sept. 24.
The deadline for the student to drop the class had passed before September 24, according to the student. Since then, the student said they have not taken any further classes for the class.
“I honestly don’t know what to do now,” the student said. “I don’t want to drop the class and have it on my record. I’d just like to erase it from my file and move on.”
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