Professor that Tried to Block Photographer Charged with Assault
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University of Missouri Communications Professor Melissa Click has been charged with assault.
Many remember Click as the crazy woman on camera asking for "some muscle" to get a Photographer away from protesting students.
A spokeswoman for the Columbia prosecutor’s office said Click was charged with third-degree assault, a class C misdemeanor that carries a possible 15-day jail sentence.
“This is a very bad situation for us all,” interim Chancellor Hank Foley said at a university news conference Monday afternoon,. He also apologized to the students involved in faculty attempts to block media from documenting a campus protest on Nov. 9.
The Kansas City Star reports that Click was caught on video calling for “some muscle” to remove a student reporter from an area on the campus where protesters had gathered.
Mark Schierbecker, an MU student and videographer, has accused Click of grabbing his camera and pushing him while he was making the video. His video also included a confrontation between another student journalist, Tim Tai, and Janna Basler, the assistant director for Greek life and leadership at MU. Basler was later put on administrative leave.
Click remains an assistant professor in the department of communications. Foley said Click is seeking full tenure at the school, and that process won’t be completed until this summer. Click is working from home this week and could not be reached for comment Monday.
