The University of Missouri has finally suspended Melissa Click, the assistant professor of communications who is charged with assault after shoving a student journalist during the on-campus protests in November. The student journalist in question was attempting to document the protests.
In the latest controversy to divide the community, Mizzou’s Board of Curators voted Wednesday to suspend Melissa Click, the assistant professor caught on camera pushing a student journalist and calling for “some muscle” to remove him from a protest camp.
“The Board of Curators directs the General Counsel, or outside counsel selected by General Counsel, to immediately conduct an investigation and collaborate with the city attorney and promptly report back to the Board so it may determine whether additional discipline is appropriate,” the board said in a statement.
The suspension came a day after the city prosecutor’s decision to file a misdemeanor assault charge against Click over the incident, but it fell short of state legislators’ demands that Click be fired.
Click had previously resigned her courtesy post with the University of Missouri's School of Journalism. It's extremely unsettling that someone working in the field of communications (and teaching students nonetheless) could have such little respect for the First Amendment.