Mizzou Fires Anti-Speech Communications Professor
The First Amendment doesn’t protect assaults.
For a minute there, it seemed like University of Missouri was headed off the rails into the mire of political correctness. The university known for its journalism school lost its president due to student protests. A few days later, a professor at the university’s Department of Communication called for muscle to manhandle a journalist covering those protests. “Students practiced more principled journalism than the teacher who claimed to be an expert,” we wrote then.
This week, that professor, Melissa Click, has been fired from the university after a review process that included the testimony of 20 witnesses and legal council. Some of the more sheltered occupants of the Ivory Tower disagreed with the administration, though, as 115 signed a petition to keep Click employed. As National Review’s David French wrote: “News flash — neither the First Amendment nor the most expansive interpretation of academic freedom grants professors the right to assault students. Her actions were antithetical to free expression.” As for providing an education that will allow students to go out and work in the real world, the university seems like it is getting back on the rails.