Melissa Click Said She Thought Student Who Filmed Her Might Have Had a Gun

Melissa A. Click told investigators working for the University of Missouri’s board that she feared a student whom she tried to remove from a campus protest last fall might have had a gun.

Ms. Click, the assistant professor of communication who was fired on Wednesday by the system’s Board of Curators, drew the ire of free-speech advocates in November when she was caught on video asking for “some muscle” to remove Mark Schierbecker from the site of a student protest over racism at the Columbia flagship.

According to documents published on Thursday, Ms. Click told investigators who were hired by the system to look into the incident more about her encounter with Mr. Schierbecker:

One problem: Missouri does not allow concealed weapons on its college campuses. When confronted with the full report, Ms. Click backed away from her comments:

It’s unclear exactly which piece of legislation Ms. Click was referring to. Roughly a month after the incident, a Missouri senator introduced a bill to allow concealed guns on campuses. In September 2014 the state enacted legislation allowing specially trained employees with concealed-carry permits to carry firearms.