Professor’s firing yields a victory for free speech

222It was at Mizzou’s flagship campus in Columbia, Mo., last fall when Melissa Click, a feminist-studies scholar and assistant professor of mass communications, was captured on video verbally intimidating and physically bullying a student photojournalist covering a rally celebrating the resignation of the university president after months of organized protests and allegations of racial intolerance on campus.

“Who wants to help me get this reporter out of here? I need some muscle over here,” she ranted at the rally in a video that rapidly went viral throughout the nation.

Click soon thereafter issued a hollow apology and resigned an extracurricular “courtesy” appointment at the university. The Vindicator and other protectors of free-speech and free-assembly rights quickly labeled such actions insufficient and demanded she be terminated.

Although it took far too long, the UM Board of Curators finally did the right thing. Late last month, it fired Click and terminated all UM ties with her. This week, it wisely rejected a lame appeal she had filed.

‘SERIOUS ACTION’ DEMANDED

Pam Henrickson, chairwoman of the university’s governing board, did not mince words in justifying the termination: “The circumstances surrounding Dr. Click’s behavior, both at a protest in October when she tried to interfere with police officers who were carrying out their duties, and at a rally in November, when she interfered with members of the media and students who were exercising their rights in a public space and called for intimidation against one of our students, we believe demands serious action.”

Click’s continued presence on the University of Missouri campus as a full-time assistant professor would have served as a constant and haunting reminder of the stain of dishonor she brought to the campus and to the ideals of unfettered free speech everywhere.

Nonetheless, Click and her misguided band of special-interest allies vow to fight on, arguing that her termination sets a “dangerous precedent” of silencing protest.

We, however, beg to differ. Allowing Click to continue her full-time employment at the university would have set a dangerous precedent and sent a chilling message that irresponsible and vicious attacks on others’ legitimate free-speech rights need not go unpunished.