A University of Nebraska teaching assistant who bullied a conservative student on campus last month has been relieved of her teaching duties at the public university.
In the wake of the Aug. 25 incident, Courtney Lawton, a graduate teaching assistant in the English department, was reassigned to non-teaching duties, the Lincoln Journal Star reports.
Lawton came under scrutiny after she bullied Kaitlyn Mullen, a member of the university’s Turning Point USA chapter, while she was tabling on campus for the organization.
Video showed Lawton yelling “Neo-fascist Becky right here. Wants to destroy public schools, public universities, hates DACA kids” as well as giving the middle finger during her protest of Turning Point USA.
Campus police eventually arrived at the protest and escorted Mullen back to her apartment. A campus employee who arrived on the scene told Mullen that her organization would have to move its table to a free speech zone because it was handing out “propaganda.”
Nebraska spokesman Steve Smith told the Journal Star that the university reassigned Lawton “because of safety concerns raised by this incident.” He also chided her actions.
“Our expectations for civility were not met by the lecturer in her behavior toward a student, and not representative of a university where the robust free exchange of ideas takes place 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said.
About a handful of university employees joined Lawton in protesting Turning Point USA while Mullen recruited members for the organization. The university did not comment on whether any other faculty members were disciplined, according to the Journal Star:
Lawton is saying her reassignment is to protect her own safety rather than a rebuke of her actions.
“Executive Vice Chancellor Donde Plowman told me I was being removed from the classroom due to a security threat to me and to my students after Turning Point USA publicized the protest and released a troll storm upon the university,” she told the newspaper.
Mullen told the Journal Star she’d like to see stronger action from the university administration regarding Lawton’s behavior.
“I hope [the university] will set an example by removing her from campus so she can’t do this to any other students,” she said.
Mullen has one influential figure in her corner. Campus Reform reports that Nebraska state Sen. Steve Erdman penned an op-ed calling on the university to fire Lawton as well as English professor Amanda Gailey, who also joined the protests.
Read the Journal Star article and Campus Reform article.
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