MU professor Melissa Click, who called for ‘muscle’ to remove reporter, charged with assault

Melissa Click, the University of Missouri communications professor who garnered widespread scorn for trying to physically remove a student reporter from a campus protest, was formally charged with assault Monday morning.

A spokeswoman for the Columbia prosecutor’s office said Click was charged with third-degree assault, a class C misdemeanor that carries a possible 15-day jail sentence.

“This is a very bad situation for us all,” interim Chancellor Hank Foley said at a university news conference Monday afternoon,. He also apologized to the students involved in faculty attempts to block media from documenting a campus protest on Nov. 9.

Click was caught on video calling for “some muscle” to remove a student reporter from an area on the campus where protesters had gathered.

Mark Schierbecker, an MU student and videographer, has accused Click of grabbing his camera and pushing him while he was making the video.