BUZZ
Key Takeaways
- Professor Karen Leader of Florida Atlantic University is on administrative leave for retweeting anti-Charlie Kirk comments, which she defends as a call for discourse on his views.
- Leader expressed concerns for her safety and labeled her suspension a 'personal attack', claiming it reflects a broader issue in academia regarding free expression.
- FAU President Adam Hasner stated the university promotes civil discourse and is investigating the situation, which Leader implies may lead to legal action.
An art history professor at Florida Atlantic University recently defended to a local TV news station her numerous retweets of anti-Charlie Kirk comments that resulted in her being put on administrative leave.
Donned in a T-shirt with a large “DEI” (diversity, equity, inclusion) on its front and back (pictured), Prof. Karen Leader told WPTV she “wanted a chance to speak to [her] community” so it could “see what [she] was trying to say.”
Leader’s retweets (most under her own written heading “This was Charlie Kirk”) included the account “I Smoked Charlie Kirk” who wrote “In order to honor Charlie Kirk’s dying wish, Trump should release the Epstein files.”
Other retweets called Kirk a “virulent racist,” claimed he believed “gay people shouldn’t have relationships,” “trans people shouldn’t be allowed to exist,” “women shouldn’t have careers,” and a clip of Kirk allegedly using racial slurs (which includes a truncated community note which begins “Charlie did not use a racial slur in this clip”; in her interview, it’s noted Leader later deleted that particular retweet.)
Leader also reposted the oft-cited-out-of-context Kirk quote about the Second Amendment, along with complaints about Turning Point USA’s “Professor Watchlist.”
FAU President Adam Hasner wrote in a statement that Leader (without identifying her) was on “administrative leave” pending an investigation, and said it was the school’s “responsibility to promote civil discourse, conduct healthy debate, and treat one another with respect” despite any employee’s “political leanings.”
In her interview, Leader said she received death threats and still “fears for her and her students’ safety on campus.”
According to The Art Newspaper, Leader also took being put on leave as a “personal attack” and “a sign of a larger and more dangerous trend.”
She offered a defense of her X posts saying she “wants to start a discourse” about the “whitewashing” of Charlie Kirk, and further claimed the posts and retweets “offered proof” Kirk had said “vile things” that had “targeted populations” and “demonstrated his bigotry.”
WPTV notes FAU has been “bipartisan” in its approach to applying leave to staff who posted questionable material, including one for “conservative social media posts.”
To this, Leader said “constitutionally, we’re on the same side,” and that they have a “collective responsibility to force [FAU] to follow the law.” She added a lawsuit against the school is a possibility.
In her closing statement, Leader apologized to her students past and present and the FAU community, saying what had transpired was a “devaluing of their [college] degree” which is “happening all over the state.”
The Florida State University System Free Expression Statement reads
It is equally important not to stifle the dissemination of any ideas, even if other members of our community may find those ideas abhorrent. Individuals wishing to express ideas with which others may disagree must be free to do so, without fear of being bullied, threatened or silenced. This does not mean that such ideas should go unchallenged, as that is part of the learning process. And though we believe all members of our campus communities have a role to play in promoting civility and mutual respect in that type of discourse, we must not let concerns over civility or respect be used as a reason to silence expression.
The only qualifiers noted in the statement include “true threats,” “defamation,” and “reasonable limitations on the time, place, and manner in which [free expression] rights are exercised.”
According to her FAU faculty page, in addition to teaching art history, Leader is a faculty associate in the Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies.
Her now-protected X account bio includes an upside-down American flag, a rainbow, a hashtag “#resist,” and reads “Art History, feminism, sass. Tink’s fave phrase: ‘you silly ass.’ Here to learn, sometimes to teach. Opinions mine.”
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