ABOR Chair DuVal: We 'will not accept harassment' after ASU professor, Turning Point USA incident
Download mp3 (12.06 MB)Arizona State University police recently released security camera footage which shows an incident from last week, in which two people from the group Turning Point USA followed professor David Boyles on the school’s Tempe campus.
The group says one of the people was a “reporter,” while the other was filming the interaction. Turning Point USA targeted Boyles, who teaches in ASU’s English Department.
He posted on social media after the incident that it happened after he taught a class on LGBTQ+ youth in pop culture and politics. Boyles is also involved in Drag Story Hour Arizona, and he says the two people following him were yelling at him about that.
In the video, you can see the two people from Turning Point following Boyles. After a little while, the professor appears to put his hand toward the camera. At that point, the person asking the questions shoves Boyles to the ground. The filming continues while Boyles gets up and continues walking.
In his social media post following the incident, Boyles showed a photo of himself, with a large cut on the left side of his face.
In a statement, ASU President Michael Crow said, in part, “This is the kind of outrageous conduct that you would expect to see from bullies in a high school cafeteria.”
The chair of the Arizona Board of Regents, Fred DuVal, also released a statement saying the board “supports free speech and expression on each of our public university campuses, but will not accept harassment, bullying and similar incitements to violence against our students, professors and staff members.”
The Show spoke with DuVal about it.
