Assault charge filed against Missouri assistant professor

Click received heavy backlash after video surfaced of her asking for “some muscle” to physically remove a student journalist from a protestor encampment surfaced.

Melissa Click, a University of Missouri professor, has been charged with simple assault in connection with her confrontation with a student journalist during a protest in November which was captured on video.

Schierbecker, along with Tim Tai, a student photojournalist, were reporting on the #ConcernedStudent1950 protest after the university’s president and campus chancellor stepped down over charges of indifference to racial issues.

Click immediately turned down the reporter’s request for comment and told him he needed to leave the protest. If convicted, she could face 15 days in jail. “We believe that Click has been wronged in the media by those who have attacked her personally and have called for her dismissal”, the letter said.

Now it looks like she will need some legal muscle to deal with the charges she’s facing.

Some Republicans in the state Senate continue to criticize the University of Missouri for not firing an assistant professor who confronted journalists during campus protests last November.

A summons was mailed to assistant professor of communications Melissa Click, with a court date to be determined later.

Click identified herself as a member of the communications faculty.

In the aftermath of the video being circulated, the Missouri University School of Journalism, one of the leading journalism schools in the country, acted to revoke her courtesy appointment to its faculty. Her university phone’s voicemail was full and not accepting messages, and her home number was disconnected. “Who’s going to help me?” “The whole situation surrounding this has been stonewalling and an attempt to run out the clock by the university”, said board member, David Steelman to Associated Press, as reported by CBS News.