The head of the University of Missouri’s journalism department praised one of its students Tuesday for standing up to campus protesters who tried to block his access to a celebration over the resignation of the school’s president.
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“The student protest at the University of Missouri began as a response to a serious problem – outbursts of vile racism on campus – and quickly devolved into an expression of a renewed left-wing hostility to freedom of expression”, NY Magazine columnist Jonathan Chait wrote on Tuesday.
A video on YouTube has gone viral showing students pushing photographer Tim Tai who was trying to shoot photos of the #ConcernedStudent1950 protest Monday. The incident with Tai was caught on camera by another photographer.
Under fire, Click resigned her courtesy appointment with the journalism school on Tuesday, but remains an assistant professor at the university.
According to the Columbia Missourian, a few members of the journalism school’s executive committee have said Click’s actions are a clear violation of First Amendment rights. Other professors were quick to use Twitter to point out Click teaches mass communication in the Department of Communication.
Later that day, Click resigned her courtesy appointment with the university’s prestigious School of Journalism.
Tai is pushed back by the wall of students while constantly being told to leave as he stands his ground and delivers a mini-lecture on freedom of the press and the First Amendment.
“Yeah, I know, that’s a really good one”, Click says in a sarcastic tone. She said she had personally apologized to the journalists involved. “I need a few muscle over here”, shouted Click, whose research interests center on popular texts and audiences “disdained in mainstream culture”.
Throughout the video, students threaten to call the police on Schierbecker and Tai, who respond by again citing their rights as outlined in both the US Constitution and Missouri state law. At the end of the video, Schierbecker approaches Click, who calls for “muscle” to remove him from the protest area.
She said she spoke to one of the reporters on the phone and he accepted her apology.
“Frankly, she assaulted a student, so she should not be allowed to be in a teaching environment”, 22-year-old Mark Schierbecker told the Herald.
Critics of the protesters at Yale and the University of Missouri say that in fighting for their own rights, they’re restricting those of others. “She wanted to explain what happened”. “I think that it’s important for us to create that distinction and create a space where we can all learn from one another and start to create a place of healing rather than a place where we are experiencing a lot of hate like we have in the past”.
Students rejoiced, but the protests persisted on campus, setting up the confrontation between Click and the student journalists.
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He also voiced frustration at becoming part of the story, tweeting, “I’m a little perturbed at being part of the story, so maybe let’s focus a few more reporting on systemic racism in higher ed institutions”.
