Governor highlights Board of Regents firing of USD Professor for facebook post critical of Charlie Kirk

@SoDakCampaigns

This popped up on my social media this afternoon:

Obviously, the Governor took umbrage at the USD Professor’s comments, and noted that the Board of Regents intends to end his employment.   What do you think about it?

Did it go beyond free speech, and cross the line of decorum and discourse that university employees need to publicly exhibit?  Should there be a line that instructors should not cross?  What is the line?

Whether crazy people are out there killing kids, political figures on any part of the spectrum, or those in the media, those are all things it’s entirely appropriate to be concerned about.  It’s ok to say crazy people should not be killing people.  I suspect the way he went about it that has the leader of the state highlighting his removal from employment.

But at what point do we say “this is too far” outside of the freedom of expression that we will allow?

69 thoughts on “Governor highlights Board of Regents firing of USD Professor for facebook post critical of Charlie Kirk”

  1. I wish both conservatives and liberals would protect free speech with the fervor of gun people protecting the 2nd amendment.

    1. Rich at 4:09…. To be sure, the 1st amendment would be impossible without 2nd amendment protections. Much of Europe — where individuals have no right to speak their minds or keep a gun — is discovering this for themselves. IIRC, in England alone in the past year, 12,000 arrests have been made for uttering words that offend the bureaucrats, who care not at all for freedom of speech or self-defense.

      Anonymous posts below cite supposed quotes from Kirk’s public events. Question: If he said such things — about the 2nd amendment, as well as gays, blacks, and people who don’t like the sex they were born with — then why aren’t we seeing the evidence on continuous loop on every mainstream media broadcast? Yet… nothing. That’s a huge tell that the quotes don’t exist, but the Left — like this prof — still screams on this forum and other social media that they do. Is it any wonder that civilization is going mad?

      1. Cliff like Trump, Kirk used a combo of dog whistles, gaslighting, wink and nods to advance the white nationalist christian agenda. You must be bored not sot stocking ladies undies and whatever t the store

        1. Anonymous at 4:54… Your ignorance re Kirk is truly monumental. Oh, and I’ve been retired for five years. Try to keep up.

  2. This is not as open and shut as it would appear. Personally I condone those statements Michael wrote. He was exercising his first amendment right of free speech. Somebody can disagree with this statement but Charlie Kirk might be best known for defending first amendment rights.

    Honestly, BOR probably should contact USD President Sheila Gestring and get her view on this statement. If she feels, he needs to go then the BOR should honor it.

    You can exercise your right to free speech but also need to accept repercussions that can go along with that.

  3. I find this not only disturbing, but very disheartening, that someone who is teaching our children can spew such evilness.

  4. His words pale in comparison to Charlie Kirk’s rhetoric. We have free speech (at this time) and he should not have been fired at the whim of the Gov. Unless he had a clause in his contract regarding this, I’d sue if I as him.

    1. This guy essentially said that Charlie Kirk’s family is now better off. Please tell us the exact quote from Charlie Kirk that is even close to this level of vitriol.

    2. Obviously, you have never personally read, or viewed, any of Charlie Kirk’s public speeches or the conversations he was having at college in their entirety.

      Charlie Krik was truly having “The Dialog” that the Left has always claimed it wants to have with conservatives. For that, he was killed.

      1. I’ve not only listened to him, I’ve been to a campus event where he was the featured speaker.

  5. This is fantastic! And I would like to think I had a part in shit-canning this loser’s career as I sent an email to every member of the BoR and the USD President concerning the comments made. Goodbye slime-wad.

    1. No you didn’t. Jon Hansen is taking victory laps on social media right now taking credit after Rhoden took credit. It’s campaign season. Look at me, look at me. Jon’s wife went on social media to personally thank Jon for getting the Professor fired……… on her own Facebook page. That is wacky. Why not tell him thanks at the dinner table or when you are going to bed at night………Wacky.

      1. Oh my did I trigger you poor little dem? I sent a letter to each, whether they read them or not I don’t know. But I did my part to attempt getting him shit-canned . Ha ha ha ha ha!!

        1. Team Dumpsterfire will not be outdone in the race to the bottom. Expect a post from the campaign that it was Toby who was the first to initiate all of this which led to the firing even though there will be no proof that he did.

  6. Kirk when from campus to campus organizing groups to conduct hate / death threat campaigns against professors and administrators to promote curriculum purity along Christian lines. This is what he brought to a campus.
    But yeah, that post was flamingly out of good taste.

    2. Anonymous 5:28 pm

      I suspect nearly all of the people celebrating or condoning Kirk’s murder are as willfully ignorant as you, and have never troubled themselves to listen to Kirk directly.

      1. “Celebrations” are a Fox News Lie. No one is celebrating. Nobody. You’re sick and fomenting violent retaliation based on a self serving lie.

        Kirk was happily normalizing 50’s white supremicist attitudes among a young group previously untouched by that hateful crap. He deserved to live long enough to renounce and regret it. He had that choice stolen from him. That is sad.

        1. Open Blue Sky and you won’t have to look far to see Dems celebrating Kirk’s death. Or even look at the comments on the Argus Leader’s instagram post about it.

          1. Probably all AI bots. The dead internet has arrived. The bots are designed to drive us off course and ruin social interaction.

            1. They’re certainly not bots, when they’re being personally identified and acknowledging that they’ve made the statements.

  8. Free speech stops with profanity and falsehoods. Charlie Kirk was not a Nazi, and he did not spread hate. He just said things some people didn’t want to hear. It’s not hateful to point out that transgenderism is a somatic delusion, that trans people are seriously mentally ill.
    These are statements of fact, and facts bother a lot of vulnerable people.
    The charlatans who tell these unfortunate people that they can change their gender are guilty of medical fraud. The doctors involved in “gender affirming care” are QUACKS. In the past, they sold laetrile and graviola for cancer, promoted goat gland surgery for erectile dysfunction and snake oil for everything else. “Gender affirming care” is just the latest bogus treatment, and the charlatans are cashing in. Gender is determined by your genes, and the gene therapy to change them does not exist..No doctor can change your gender any more than one can change your age.

    1. Walmart has heavy duty aluminum foil on Roll Back Help you and your brain get through the winter months

        1. ad hominem attacks are the white flag of surrender in any debate. When people can’t argue with the message, they attack the messenger

    2. Help is on the way Anonymous 6:01. A nice clean room, hot meals and compassionate staff await you.

      2. It’s science, and it’s settled: gender is determined by the presence or absence of a Y chromosome. It is not a social construct. It’s a binary biological fact. It doesn’t matter how many X chromosomes a person has, males with Klinefelter’s are males, females with Turner’s are females. It doesn’t matter what an individual looks like, how he thinks or feels.
        Mastectomies do not turn women into men, and orchiectomies do not turn men into women. If those procedures, commonly performed on cancer patients, actually changed the gender of the patients, cancer survivors would be changing their names and hairstyles. Every sane person knows those procedures do not change a person’s gender. But the charlatans out there are making a lot of money exploiting people with the somatic delusion there is something wrong with their bodies. It’s a scam.

        1. The staff would be very receptive to hearing about it. What size patient gown do you normally wear?

          2. In the words of the Minneapolis school shooter: “I only keep (the long hair) because it is pretty much my last shred of being trans. I am tired of being trans, I wish I never brain-washed myself….I know I am not a woman but I definitely don’t feel like a man….I regret being trans. I wish I was a girl, I just know I cannot achieve that body with the technology we have today.”

            Psychiatric treatment with antipsychotic medication is more appropriate than “gender affirming care.”. This is medical fraud, perpetrated by charlatans..

            More and more victims of this fraud are coming forward to talk about this but they continue to be ignored.

  9. Way to go Gov. Rhoden.

    Hansen can try to claim credit like he always does but who do you think USD listened to?

  10. This statement showed poor judgement and a lack of compassion. This guy doesn’t need to care about the murder of Charlie Kirk. He should have just kept scrolling. Instead, he starts his post with admitting he didn’t know Kirk. But wasn’t even a speed bump to slow him down from making the worse kind of derogatory and inflammatory comments about a murder victim. Then he proceeded to double down and vilely demean the grief and devastating loss of Kirk’s widow and children. This is not someone who has demonstrated the kind of care and critical thinking skills – let alone basic decency – to be leading a classroom.

  11. The right only cares when it is their own. Democrat lawmaker assassinated….crickets. it didnt take them a week to joke about the attack on Nancy Pelosis husband. Feigned outrage.

  12. When individuals act and speak like toxic jackasses they should get fired. You have free speech, but employers also have the freedom (and responsibility) to fire you when you do and say something absolutely disgusting and vile.

  13. This fellow, Mr. Hook, makes a pile of money from the colleges. He might be a long-haired high-brow, or maybe just a wannabe high-brow like my close personal friend Lar, but he needs to be banished hard for a couple of months, at least.

  14. I used to think of Trump Derangement Syndrome as just people losing their minds about him specifically and knee jerk hating everything he said or did or enacted. But I now realize that Trump Derangement Syndrome has made people lose their ability to tell the difference between right and wrong.

  16. I will not condone what the professor said, but I am sick of all of these double standards. Trump spread conspiracy theories and mocked Paul Pelosi after his attack too. And, as I mentioned the other day, the president has been more than happy to remove secret service protection for his critics. Including Kamala Harris. Imagine the outrage if something happens.

    It’s time for some common decency. From the top down.

  17. Why are there so many “anonymous” comments. Does no one have the conviction to stand with their comments?

    1. Not in this day in age. Trump and his regime has changed to game. Even Thune is afraid to say anything. He is such a appointment

    2. Not in this day and age. Trump and his regime has changed to game. Even Thune is afraid to say anything. He is such a disappointment

  18. Why would the professor give his opinion and be fired, but Rhoden would invite the Charlie Kirks of the world to come on campus and give their opinion?

  19. Ala Charlie Black people

    “Happening all the time in urban America, prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact. It’s happening more and more.” (source)

    Black pilots

    “If I see a Black pilot, I’m gonna be like, ’Boy, I hope he’s qualified.’” (source)

    Black women

    “They’re coming out, and they’re saying, ‘I’m only here because of affirmative action.’ Yeah, we know. You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.” (source)

    Civil rights

    “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the mid-1960s.” (source)

    The death penalty

    “[The death penalty] should be public, should be quick, should be televised… I think at a certain age, it’s an initiation… At what age should you start to see public executions?” (source)

    Democrats

    “The Democrat Party supports everything that God hates.” (source)

    Empathy

    “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made up new age term that does a lot of damage.” (source)

    Feminism

    “Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge.” (source)

    1. Now exercise some intellectual honesty (I know that is nearly impossible for a lib) and give the statements in context. Oh, but you can’t do that because it wont fit your political narrative and you will look like a fool…too late, you already do, you’re a lib.

  20. Now Mr Hook is going to find out that his Constitutional right to spew profanity-laced hate doesn’t mean his employer can’t fire him for it.
    If fact, terminating him will be a good civics lesson for all the students, who might be inclined to believe the exercise of their First Amendment rights doesn’t entail consequences.

  21. Thank you for the correction Charlie only spew non- profanity hate I am sure St. Peter will note that.

  22. Anyone who dares speak against Donald Trump, MAGA, Kristi Noem, or anyone in, and associated with, the Republican Party, do not have the right to free expression. If you think I am wrong, just look at the most powerful Republican legislators and corporate CEOs. They would not dare speak against President Trump, ever.

  23. Words are not violence—violence is violence.

    Charlie Kirk was killed on a college campus in Utah, seated under a tent with the slogan “Prove Me Wrong,” facing a crowd of several thousand people, peacefully debating anyone who wanted to approach and challenge him.

    No normal human casually celebrates the violent killing of a peaceful person. No one should feel anything but horror and dread at the murder of Charlie Kirk.

    2. Toby Doeden is a perfect example or what the Republican party has become. I think Doeden can handle handle a 109 lb woman Think I heard she has fancy foot work so he better watch out

  25. I agree that this person should lose their job. We all need to stop and watch what we are saying. Our kids are watching and listening. I blame our media for getting us this far. Anyone who watched Charlie Kirk could see he did not hate gays, blacks, or anyone. He voiced his opinions based on what is in the Constitution and what the Bible says. The truth is hard to take when you are on the wrong side of it.

  26. Charlie Kirk was a fierce advocate of free speech. I highly doubt he’d welcome the firing of this professor as Kirk would recognize it gives license to liberal states to do the same for conservative view points. Eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

    Moreover, the professor will likely prevail any lawsuit under the standard established by SCOTUS in Pickering vs Board of Education. Government employees do not relinquish their right to protected First Amendment speech in their personal capacity simply because their day job is with the government.

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