re: Dear Mizzou: Melissa Click Isn't Going Away

Click's response to the decision to fire her:

PDF: LINK

Highlights:

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The Report to the University of Missouri Board of Curators omits a number of crucial
descriptions and events that give context to my actions at both the MU Homecoming Parade on
October 10, 2015, and the events on Carnahan Quadrangle on November 9, 2015. I believe you
need a fuller picture of the environment in which I found myself. While some would judge me by
a short portion of videotape, I do not think that this is a fair way to evaluate these events. Those
videotaped moments (for which I have formally and publicly apologized) deserve to be
understood in a wider frame of reference, among all of the momentous events of the fall
semester.

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quote:

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At the Homecoming Parade on October 10, 2016, I encountered a group of 10 students who were
recounting racially charged moments in MU’s history to a crowd that was angry and indignant. I
was deeply moved by the scene and felt ashamed that the campus community was using our
familiar school chant, “M-I-Z Z-O-U” to silence the students. Eight minutes after the ten-minute
protest began, I stepped up to the students to ask if I could stand with them so that they would
know they were not alone. I stood with them as the Columbia Police pushed us to the sidewalk
and threatened them with pepper spray. I stood with them as they wept and offered them hugs
and praise for their strength and courage.

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quote:

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I feel the report’s description does not accurately characterize the precarious environment of the
Homecoming Parade, and because it draws only from one brief, edited video of the day it
provides a limited description of these tense moments. The scene I encountered included older,
mostly male, white adults from the crowd using their hands and bodies to move the protesters so
the parade could pass by them. I heard angry and threatening language, including swear words
directed at the students. Tension was palpable and members of the crowd, who lined the sides of
the streets and outnumbered the students, were angry. The car President Wolfe was sitting in was
revving its engine and slowly rolled forward toward the students and crowd. Many of the
students stood with tears streaming down their faces. I saw MU students wanting to be heard and
using their voices to ask the community to hear their experiences. When the police arrived, one
officer was aggressively using his hands to push the students back and was shaking a can of
pepper spray. It was a fast-paced, challenging scene. I was worried about the safety of the
students in the middle of that angry crowd, and I was concerned that the one officer’s actions
were too aggressive with the students.

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Bold strategy to continue with what you think happened vs. what actually is objectively verifiable with video evidence.

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she gone

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I think most schools have idiots like this who think they are smarter than everybody else. Good to see one brought down to size.

quote:

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I feel the report’s description does not accurately characterize the precarious environment of the
Homecoming Parade

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Yeah. That dangerous crowd was full of parents who brought their kudos out to get the free skittles and candy bars being thrown from the floats. Pretty insensitive of them to want to shelf their kids from black power chants at the parade. At 9am. Damn insensitive racists.

There is a time and a place. That was not it.