Melissa Click, former University of Missouri assistant professor, appeals termination

Melissa Click, the former University of Missouri assistant professor who was fired after she tried to remove a student journalist from a campus protest, is appealing her termination.

Ms. Click said in a statement on Tuesday that she believes the school’s Board of Curators is using her “as a scapegoat to distract from larger campus issues” and accused university officials of having “bowed to conservative voices” who sought her removal for two incidents that occurred in 2015.

The former mass-media assistant professor made headlines late last year after video emerged showing her attempting to eject a student journalist from a campus protest.

“Who wants to help me get this reporter out of here?” she said in the viral video. “I need some muscle over here.”

The city prosecutor’s office in Columbia, Missouri, charged Ms. Click in January with misdemeanor assault as a result of her actions, and the university’s board of curators moved to fire her the following month.

Ms. Click “was not entitled to interfere with the rights of others, to confront members of law enforcement or to encourage potential physical intimidation against a student,” Pamela Henrickson, the chairwoman of MU’s Board of Curators, said last month.

On Monday, the American Association for University Professors (AAUP) said they would investigate Ms. Click’s termination.

“The AAUP’s action underscores my belief that the Curators have overstepped their authority,” the former assistant professor said in a statement Tuesday.

“While I have taken the Curators’ offer to appeal their decision to terminate me, I do not believe that the process they used to come to their decision was fair. I firmly believe that the Curators must adhere to MU’s Collected Rules and Regulations and rescind their termination notice,” Ms. Click said.

“The Board of Curators is using me as a scapegoat to distract from larger campus issues, but their termination of my employment will not remedy the environment of injustice that persists at MU. Instead of seeking to silence Black students and their allies, MU must acknowledge the concerns of marginalized students on our campus, address the racial problems that shape the campus community, and ensure fair treatment of all students, staff and faculty,” she said.

When reached by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Tuesday, a spokesman for the university declined to comment on what they described as a personnel issue, the newspaper reported.