Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a letter to the University of North Texas on Friday, urging its leaders to take action about an incident in which a student castigated her classmates for celebrating the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last week.
Paxton is demanding answers from the public university after the student was removed from class for defending Kirk and denouncing political violence. None of her peers were removed, according to the Republican attorney general.
“Since his assassination, radical leftists across the country have celebrated Charlie’s death, continued to promote political violence, and expressed support for the death of other conservative leaders,” he wrote to President Harrison Keller and Dean Laura Smith.
“Unfortunately, Texas has not been immune to this shameful and dangerous conduct. Indeed, on the day of Charlie’s assassination, a student at your university chronicled the vile reactions of her classmates on social media, posting a video of other students celebrating his death and expressing hope that the President would suffer the same fate.”
Paxton did not name the female student who recorded the classroom encounter. A video that appears to document the event, to which Paxton is referring, started circulating on social media shortly after Kirk’s death.
After the professor told her to leave class, the student reported the incident to Dean Smith, who instructed her to take the issue to the head of the psychology department. She asked the department head to take her absence off the record since she was forced to miss class, which is partially graded on attendance.
The student later said she believed university leaders did not direct her to file a written report because they did not want paper documentation of the incident. She then filed a report. As of Friday, Paxton said she did not receive a formal response from the university.
UNT published a vague statement last week without acknowledging the video or the student. However, it suggested disciplinary action is being taken against the students gleeful over Kirk’s murder.
“The recent actions of a few of our community members regarding Mr. Kirk’s death do not represent the values of our community,” the statement reads in part. “Students who violate the law or UNT Code of Student Conduct will be held accountable.”
The Washington Examiner contacted UNT for comment on the attorney general’s letter.
The accusations come days after Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) urged Texas State University to expel a student who mocked Kirk’s death at a campus vigil. Hours after the governor’s statement, the university obliged.
Paxton, citing the school’s own campus policies, called on UNT to expand its investigation into the students who celebrated politically motivated violence to include the professor who employed viewpoint discrimination against the pro-Kirk student.
“For too long, schools across the country have ignored complaints of misconduct against left-wing
students,” Paxton wrote in the letter.
“This lack of disciplinary action has reinforced a principle that such conduct is appropriate and, in turn, has contributed to radicalizing individuals to engage in reprehensible actions,” he said. “Texans must be reassured that their children are not being subjected to such indoctrination.”
