JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Embattled University of Missouri communications professor Melissa Click told KBIA, Columbia’s NPR affiliate, that she intended to fight for her job last week in her first interview since last November.
She also called out those seeking her resignation as trying to use her as a scapegoat, instead of having a meaningful conversation.
“I think it’s easier to express anger at a woman who got flustered and made a mistake than to really engage with the deep racial issues raised by the students,” she told KBIA’s Ryan Famuliner.
However, the fight between her and her detractors, including many legislators, hit yet another level after another video emerged this weekend of Click with members of Concerned Student 1950 confronting police officers during the group’s protest of the 2015 Homecoming Parade in October.
The footage was obtained by the Columbia Missourian. Explicit language is used in the video below, so viewer discretion is advised.
Click intervened between officers and protesters, taking the side of the protesters, and told a police officer, who captured the footage using his body camera, to “get your [expletive] hands off me.”
Reaction to this new revelation has been swift. Legislators have quickly renewed their calls to oust Click from the university.
“Recently, a second video has come to light of a completely separate incident showing Ms. Click becoming confrontational and yelling an expletive at a law enforcement agents,” Rep. Robert Cornejo, R-St. Peters, said. “Her own poor decisions, not some legislative conspiracy, put her in this situation.”
“Ms. Click can continue to make baseless accusations like this which continue to harm the public image of our flagship university, or she can do the right thing, accept responsibility for her actions, save the University of Missouri system further embarrassment, and resign her current position at the university.”
Another day, another video of Professor Melissa Click embarrassing @Mizzou. https://t.co/XQPGELGjvo
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) February 14, 2016
Legislators may also have a new ally in Interim Chancellor Mike Foley who said he found Click’s behavior “appalling.”
“Last night, like many in our community, I watched newly released footage of Dr. Melissa Click directing a verbal assault against members of the Columbia Police Department during the homecoming parade in October 2015,” he said in a statement. “I am not only disappointed, I am angry, that a member of our faculty acted this way… We must have high expectations of members of our community, and I will address these new revelations with the Board of Curators as they work to complete their own review of the matter.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt, however, said that Foley had missed another opportunity to fire Click and that his statement was “toothless.”
“Foley refused to call for the firing of Professor Click, leaving her with a full taxpayer-funded salary and tenure track,” Schmitt said. “By clinging to the false hopse that the story would go away… Foley and others have allowed Professor Click to become Mizzou’s national face and spokesperson, where she continues to embarrass herself and the University.”
