BUZZ
Key Takeaways
- Felicia Branch, a University of Arkansas-Little Rock professor, was fired for celebrating the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk in a Facebook post, which included inflammatory remarks and imagery.
- Chancellor Christina Drale upheld the decision to terminate Branch after significant backlash from state officials and the public, despite an appeals council recommending only a warning.
A University of Arkansas-Little Rock professor who promised to never stop “CELEBRATING” the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk has officially been fired.
Chancellor Christina Drale upheld the firing of Felicia Branch for her comments soon after Kirk’s assassination last month while speaking at Utah Valley University. She was a non-tenure track professor who ran the school’s Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic.
In a since-deleted Facebook post, Branch wrote “It never fails. People have come out caping for the devil that walked among us […] so no. I will not pull back from CELEBRATING that an evil man died by the method he chose to embrace.”
“You’re so QUICK to chastise, thinking we’re simply celebrating a death. We. Are. Not […] evil begets evil [and Kirk] is no longer able to beget evil,” she said. “That’s cause célébre.”
Branch also posted a meme showing members of the Ku Klux Klan surrounding a burning cross with the title “PEOPLE MOURNING CHARLIE KIRK.”
The chancellor’s decision came after a faculty appeals council recommended a warning instead. Branch argued her social media post had garnered little attention and that she made her comments as private citizen. Leading state officials, including Governor Sarah Sanders, called for Branch’s termination, however.
The chancellor explained:
The effect of one’s speech is not logically confined to one channel of feedback. In this case, the feedback was overwhelmingly negative. Your social-media posts were in fact disruptive to the operation and effectiveness of the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic, the Bowen School of Law, and UA Little Rock. Moreover, given your insistence that your messages were wholly unproblematic, I don’t believe that a warning or reprimand would convince you otherwise or prevent future occurrences.
Following Kirk’s assassination, other academics rushed to celebrate the murder of the founder and CEO of the conservative student group.
“Looks like ol’ Charlie spoke his fate into existence,” Middle Tennessee State University Assistant Dean Laura Sosh-Lightsy wrote on Facebook. “Hate begets hate. ZERO sympathy.”
The university subsequently fired her.
University of Tennessee at Knoxville professor Tamar Shirinian is also facing termination for her comments, as The College Fix previously reported.
“The world is better off without him in it,” the professor had stated in part, adding “his kids are better off living in a world without a disgusting psychopath like him and his wife, well, she’s a sick f*** for marrying him so I dont [sic] care about her feelings.”
“The university has taken swift action against a faculty member who has failed to meet our expectations for civil engagement,” according to a university statement. “Her actions endorsing violence and murder do not represent the university or our values. The faculty member is out of the classroom, placed on administrative leave, and termination proceedings have begun.”
Students also celebrated Kirk’s death.
At George Washington University, a student said Kirk “got what he deserved” when asked by Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins, a friend of the slain Turning Point USA leader.
The student said Kirk “was a f**king Nazi” and mocked Hawkins for mentioning that Kirk was a father.
“Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, a father of two. He wanted his child to carry a baby if they got raped,” she shouted, referencing Kirk’s opposition to abortion in all cases.
