Remember Melissa Click, the University of Missouri assistant professor who was suspended from her job after a confrontation with a student journalist?
A recently released video from the Columbia Police Department is causing even more trouble for Click. In the video, she is cursing at a cop who is trying to clear a roadway on campus, which protesters were attempting to block.
“Click can be seen screaming profanities at an officer who placed an arm on her as he told her to get back on the sidewalk,” USA Today reports. “Less than two weeks later, the assistant communication professor was captured on video calling for ‘some muscle’ to help her eject a student journalist at a protest site on the university’s quad.”
Click is currently applying for tenure, but the university’s interim chancellor, Hank Foley, is not happy with her behavior.
“Her conduct and behavior are appalling, and I am not only disappointed, I am angry, that a member of our faculty acted this way,” he said in a statement. “Her actions caught on camera last October, are just another example of a pattern of misconduct by Dr. Click — most notably, her assault on one of our students while seeking ‘muscle’ during a highly volatile situation on Carnahan Quadrangle in November.”
Click says that the incident showed her “purpose was to protect the students.” In the video, she can be seen with her arms out, seemingly trying to act as a barrier between the students and the police officers.
Click has been suspended from campus for now, but state GOP lawmakers believe the university should have fired Click and have threatened to freeze funding because of how the university is handling the situation.
“My mistake is just one part of who I am,” Click told the Columbia Missourian. “I want to stay at MU. I deserve to be heard and I deserve to be treated fairly, and I’m going to fight to be treated fairly. I think it’s everybody’s right to be treated fairly.”