BOCA RATON, Fla. — Florida Atlantic University administrators were investigating three professors over their social media posts after a 22-year-old man shot and killed political activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10 in Utah.
FAU, a public research university in Boca Raton, identified the three professors on administrative leave as Karen Leader, Rebel Cole, and Kate Polak.
“What I did is posted or reposted a lot of content that offered proof that he had said vile things,” Leader recently told WPTV about her reaction to Kirk’s assassination on X.
Leader, who teaches art history, said she and the other two professors -- Cole, who teaches finance, and Kate Polak, who teaches English -- have a First Amendment defense in common.
“Any university administrator who pursues actions against faculty for exercising their free speech should be terminated for wasting university funds,” Cole wrote on Friday on X. “Any university General Counsel who failed to advise their superiors also should be terminated. The settled case law is clear.”
Before the professor’s responses, Adam Hausner, the president of FAU, released a statement on FAU’s X account saying there were “specific processes regarding tenured faculty members” and the focus was “on our academic community’s responsibility to promote civil discourse, conduct healthy debate, and treat one another with respect.”
KIRK’S FUNERAL
Mourners were preparing to attend a memorial service for the 31-year-old father of two on Sunday in Arizona.
Federal and local law enforcement was preparing to provide security for more than 93,000 at the State Farm Stadium and the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale.
President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and State Secretary Marco Rubio were set to attend. Doors open at 8 a.m. and the program begins at 11 a.m.
Chris Tomlin, Brandon Lake, Phil WWickham, Kari Jobe Carnes and Cody Carnes were among the Christian singers and songwriters who were set to honor the co-founder of Turning Point USA.
Complete coverage
- Members of Congress take steps to tighten their own security after Kirk’s killing
- Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point taps his widow as its next leader. Questions about its future remain
- Palmetto Bay mayor calls for councilman’s resignation
- Kimmel’s future hangs in balance
- House turns back effort to censure Rep. Ilhan Omar
- Social media has us in its grip and won’t let go. The Charlie Kirk killing is a case study
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