A courageous young woman at the University of North Texas (UNT) is speaking out after being mocked, harassed, and removed from class for defending the late conservative icon Charlie Kirk, just hours after his shocking assassination during a live campus debate.
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She says the students even began wishing the same fate on President Donald Trump and other conservatives. When Mary Catherine dared to call out the grotesque display, she says the mob turned on her, ridiculing her and shouting her down.
What’s even more alarming, the professor, who had been silently observing the commotion, didn’t address the students laughing at a murder video. Instead, he approached Mary Catherine, told her to “take it outside,” and then laughed.
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Despite going directly to the dean of students, Mary Catherine says she was told there was essentially nothing the administration could do. She was directed to the Department of Psychology, where she was again met with indifference.
When she finally met with the chair, she says she asked for one simple thing: to have the absence removed from her record, since she was forced out of class for her own safety and emotional well-being.
Despite feeling that “no one really cared,” Mary Catherine says she’s proud she stood up to the mob.
Transcript:
“The story begins at 3:20 today. I was headed to my quantitative methods class. I got there at 3:20. Class starts at 3:30. I like to get there a little bit early so I can get a front spot because this class is particularly hard. I’m sitting there, and all of this… there’s probably 115 students in this class. It’s a particularly big class.
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A girl says, “Oh, my gosh, who’s Charlie Kirk?” And she’s like, “Oh, my gosh, he’s just racist. He’s homophobic. He’s against abortions and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”
She’s just going off at this point. I’m just like, whatever. I don’t have the energy to intervene or the courage. Then she was like, “Do you all want to see the video of him getting shot?”
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This is when I stood up. She was like, “Yeah, and I’m pretty sure he has a family and two little girls. This is awesome. They’re going to grow up without a dad.” That’s when I turned around and I was like… I started videoing.
I said, “Okay, so we’re going to start wishing death upon people.” I was like, “No matter what your political beliefs are,” I was like, “This shouldn’t even be being brought up in this class.”
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The fact is this should not be brought up in class. Then she was like, “So what about the white guy that shot up the Catholic Church?” I said, “Yeah, he was a transgender. He legally changed his name. I think it was a state of Minnesota. I don’t remember.”
Trending: Transgender Utah Man Had a Song Called ‘Charlie Kirk Dead at 31’ on SoundCloud Prior to Assassination (UPDATED)
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I just was not having it. You’re not going to wish death upon someone that you don’t even know that has different political beliefs. That just breaks my heart.
Anyways, so the professor has been watching this happen, and he comes up to me, not to the other student, to me, and says, “You all should probably take this outside,” and then laughs.
I actually looked at him and I was just like, “wow.” I grabbed my bag, I walked out, went straight to the dean of students. Actually, I called my mom walking to the dean of students. I was just upset. I was so upset.
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Got to the dean of students, told him what was going on, and that’s when I heard the news that he actually died. I immediately started actually crying. I did. It hit me and I was like, “Wow, this sucks. Actually, this is terrible. This is so bad.”
He was just doing his thing out there in Utah or wherever. But the dean of students, whatever you wanted to call her, I don’t know. She was really nice. She was like, “We can’t do anything,” which I don’t know why.
But she was like, “You need to go to the head of the Department of Psychology.” I was like, “Okay.” I took my sticky note with his name on it, took my tissues, and I walked across campus bawling my eyes out. I made it to Hall. I went up to the third floor and I walked into the thing and there was no one sitting at the front desk, ringing the bell.
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She was like, “Can you give me a reason?” I was like, “The dean of students sent me, like, I’m not just here.” She looked at me and she was like, “Well, can you give me a reason?”
I was like, “Something happened in class.” I was like, “And I need to talk to the department, sure.” She was like, “I can go see what he can do.”
She walked in there and then she walked out and she was like, “He only has seven minutes, so you might want to hurry up.” Okay. I made it to the department chair, sat down, told him what’s going on.
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I’m not going to take an absence for something that wasn’t my fault because I was there for class. I was 10 minutes early. I was sitting front row, I was ready for class. This class is already hard enough as it is.
I need the extra points for attendance, and I don’t want this to be taken on my record. I don’t really know how this is going to be handled because I just feel like no one has really cared. I’m just at a loss for words at this point.
I don’t understand how that many students think it’s okay watching a video of someone getting shot and laughing and clapping and saying, “Oh my gosh, this is awesome.” I don’t understand.
But I can sleep at night knowing that I stood up and I did something and I said something instead of letting it just slide because that’s not okay.
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But that is my story, and I am very, very, very, very upset that Charlie passed away, and I am upset at what this has come to, to think that this is okay.”
Representative Andy Hopper, who serves Texas House District 64, said he has already contacted University of North Texas President Harrison Keller, Ph.D., about the situation.
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