MU assistant professor of communications, Melissa Click, was suspended after allegedly launching a ‘verbal assault’ on a Columbia police officer at the University’s homecoming ceremony on October 10 last year. According to a report from the Columbia Missourian, the incident was captured by the officer’s body camera and has sparked outrage among MU leadership.

According to Interim Chancellor Hank Foley, “Her conduct and behavior are appalling, and I am not only disappointed, I am angry, that a member of our faculty acted this way.”

The video depicts Click intervening in an incident between a graduate student and activist, Jonathan Butler, and the officer. Click tells the police officer to “get your hands off the children,” and can be heard cursing at the officer who grabbed her shoulder. The video was published by the Missourian on Saturday and has since made national headlines.

“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,” said Foley.

The homecoming incident wasn’t the only time the professor tangled with law enforcement. Dr. Click was suspended from her post as an assistant professor on January 27, two days after she was slapped with a misdemeanor assault charge related to her conduct at a November 9 protest.

After MU System President Tim Wolfe resigned, footage of Click surfaced showing the professor calling for “muscle” in an effort to remove student and journalist Mark Schierbecker from the other side of a human wall separating journalists from the Concerned Student 1950 camp on the Mel Carnahan Quadrangle.

Click could avoid criminal charges pending her completion of a community service term, but it may take more than that to get her job back. The professor will not be allowed to step foot on MU’s campus until the System Board of Curators at the university has completed a full review of her teaching position.

“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,” said Foley.