\n<\/p>\n
Right-wing X accounts are pushing for universities to dismiss any employees that have disparaged Kirk in the days following his death.<\/p>\n
Photo illustration by Inside Higher Ed | LeoPatrizi\/E+\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
At least five faculty and staff members have been fired so far for comments they made in response to the death of Turning Point USA founder and conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed Wednesday during an event at Utah Valley University.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Investigators announced Friday they arrested a suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who is now being held in a Utah jail without bail. Utah governor Spencer Cox said during a press conference Friday that a family friend turned Robinson in to authorities after the suspect suggested to a relative that he\u2019d killed Kirk. Robinson was not a student at Utah Valley. <\/p>\n
The Utah Board of Higher Education said in a statement that Robinson is a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College and that he attended Utah State University for one semester in 2021.<\/p>\n
Among the latest college employees terminated for their responses to Kirk\u2019s killing, Lisa Greenlee was removed as a part-time instructor from Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown, N.C., on Thursday after she made comments criticizing Kirk to students during an online class, saying, \u201cI\u2019ll praise the shooter; he had good aim.\u201d A video of her remarks made the rounds on X, where right-wing accounts encouraged the college to fire her.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe deeply regret that students, employees, and the community were impacted by her comments. Greenlee\u2019s behavior is not consistent with the college\u2019s values and mission to serve Guilford County. Her statement regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk does not support the open and respectful learning and working environment that GTCC provides every day,\u201d GTCC president Anthony Clarke said in a statement. \u201cWe want to reiterate that supporting violence is reprehensible and will not be tolerated at the college.\u201d Greenlee did not respond to Inside Higher Ed<\/em>\u2019s request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Two employees at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tenn., were dismissed Thursday for making \u201cinappropriate comments on the internet related to the tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk,\u201d university president Paul Stumb wrote in a statement posted on X. He identified the employees as Michael Rex, an English and creative writing professor, and Max Woods, an assistant esports coach, but he did not share what they said. Like Greenlee, both had been the subject of online campaigns advocating for their firing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis decision was not made lightly,\u201d Stumb wrote. \u201cWe understand the importance and the impact of this action, and we want to emphasize that we conducted a comprehensive investigation prior to making our decision.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Before Stumb\u2019s statement was publicized, Rex posted an apology on his Facebook page. \u201cNo one deserves to be murdered,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI did not think about the pain and anger that my words would create. My comments were not meant to celebrate nor to foster political violence and for any traums [sic<\/em>] my words caused, I am truly sorry.\u201d Rex and Wood did not respond to Inside Higher Ed<\/em>\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n The recent firings follow the dismissals of Laura Sosh-Lightsy, a student affairs administrator at Middle Tennessee State University, and an unnamed staff member at the University of Mississippi. <\/p>\n A Clemson university professor is also subject to an ongoing push by X users to have him fired for statements on Kirk\u2019s death. On Friday afternoon, the university posted a statement that alluded to the situation. \u201cWe stand firmly on the principles of the U.S. Constitution, including the protection of free speech. However, that right does not extend to speech that incites harm or undermines the dignity of others. We will take appropriate action for speech that constitutes a genuine threat which is not protected by the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Right-wing X accounts are pushing for universities to dismiss any employees that have disparaged Kirk in the days following his death. Photo illustration by Inside Higher Ed | LeoPatrizi\/E+\/Getty Images At least five faculty and staff members have been fired so far for comments they made in response to the death of Turning Point USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[12590,3350,12560,9039,2161],"class_list":{"0":"post-20962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-comments","9":"tag-faculty","10":"tag-kirk","11":"tag-removed","12":"tag-staff"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}