Discussion: University Of Missouri Officials Fire Prof Who Blocked Journos From Protest

TPM Article Topics
1

Discussion for article #246473

2 Likes
2

Click bait.

jw1

3 Likes
3

Some enterprising lawyer should see if there is a possible class action suit on behalf of users of orange hair dye who then become bullying tyrants who tolerate no dissent.

6 Likes
4

Took them a while, but ‘freedom of the press’ eventually won.

3 Likes
5

Melissa Click really has no business posing as an educator. She ought to be happy with this outcome. It will give her a clearly much-needed opportunity to find her true calling. Bouncer comes to mind, assuming all the screeching harpy positions in town are filled.

5 Likes
6

I really think she was caught up in the moment and went a bit too far in trying to ‘protect’ the students who really didn’t need to be protected. Sort of a harsh penalty, but one that you really can’t argue with when it comes right down to it. She does need to rethink how she deals with student interactions in the future, assuming she goes back to teaching.

10 Likes
7

“… and for wearing cat-eye glasses after 1965.”

1 Like
8

Sexism is running strong in this discussion.

6 Likes
9

I really think that this is unfortunate. The woman was clearly out of control. But the main problem for the university is relationships with the State legislature. The football team strike has done a horrible thing to donations to Missou. This is the whole reason she was fired - to restore relations with alumni and the state legislature.

I hope that, in the future, faculty members have more clarity. A student protest should involve students. She is a faculty member, and had no business in a student protest, which was itself stupid, idiotic, and deeply deeply wrong-headed.

I wish her well. Her husband also works at Missou, and this will make their relationship far more difficult.

1 Like
10

The Affluenza Mom is a professor?

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/01036/Affluenza_teen__82_1036792a.jpg

Those pRick Perry “smart glasses” don’t work for you either, hon.

11

The University did the right thing here, though they should have done it sooner.

12

No shit.

13

Yes. She’s the goat in all of this.

She over-reacted, and now pays a serious price for that. She was trying to protect students (misguided though that may have been), but infringed on the First Amendment rights of other students at the same time. Not an easy case, and certainly not as uncomplicated as some seem to think it is. What if she was egging on, for instance, Fox News reporters who were hounding #BLM protestors, under the belief that she was just protecting the First Amendment rights of reporters?

This is a sad situation

14

I totally agree with this.

We have to have standards and those standards have to apply to everyone. Right now in some states we’re fighting battles where the police claim that they have privacy in public, and that’s just not right. If we believe that privacy right don’t apply in that situation we have to believe they don’t apply here and the the journalists had every right to be there. We need to have actual ideals and beliefs, not lack of beliefs and the double standards that are so prominent on the far right.

1 Like
15

I beg to differ. This WAS an easy case. People don’t have the right to privacy in public. We shouldn’t allow it with the Police and we shouldn’t allow it here, either. There is plenty of privacy indoors.

2 Likes
16

So, you believe that her action was enough to cost her thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars? Wow, you are truly a bloodthirsty person.

She was out of control. She needed to sit down and collect herself. However, I do not for a minute consider her actions firing offenses. What is happening here is that she is the goat to appease the donors and alumni, who are CORRECTLY and APPROPRIATELY pissed at the morons on the football team. That’s the real issue - the idiots on the football team went on strike, the alumni stopped giving money, and someone had to be fired. They got the president, who was also innocent, and they got this silly woman.

1 Like
17

The difficult issue here wasn’t the firing of this fool. She absolutely deserved it by violating the First Amendment rights at a Journalism student and threatening his safety with her criminal assault. (Assault is the threat, battery is the unwanted touching. What she did was assault.)

The difficult issue here is the role of the State of Missouri and the rights of taxpayers versus academic freedom. Taxpayers are forced to pay for the school, and, therefore, pay her salary. If you don’t pay your taxes, they take away you stuff and/or lock you up. And, since it is a public university, the public - through their elected officials - determine whether to support the school, and with how much money. It’s a really, really good idea for state lawmakers - who are often jerks - to keep their noses out of academic matters and the running of State Universities.

This woman’s actions were so indefensible, however, that she became part of a political firestorm. Her political favorability/unfavorability numbers in Missouri were probably lower than the Zika virus. Her continued employment became untenable to a university needing public money. The public’s right to not have to pay her salary trumped any academic freedom right she might have had. She can still say or do anything she wants. Just not on the public’s dime.

18

I think just the opposite. Not only did she try to deprive students their first amendment rights she also assaulted a member of the press. This woman then proceeded to incite a riot and bring physical harm to a student that she disagreed with. If that were my son or daughter she put her hands on i would have sued her and the school. The school was within their rights and should have canned her ass on the spot! The president did not deserve what he got but thats what happens when you support foolish left wing policy…you get caught up in it some time! He lost a hell of a lot more than her you can bet on that!! We need to hold these people that are shaping the beliefs and values of our children to a very high standard…VERY HIGH!

2 Likes
19

PRICELESS!

20

Karl Marx stated: “The first battlefield is the rewriting of history .” Evidently many of Marx’s liberal followers (professors) have been very busy on many university campuses rewriting history, rearranging reality and brainwashing students!!!

1 Like