JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Missouri college students would need to take a class on freedom of speech in order to graduate under a bill a lawmaker says is in response to a confrontation between educators and student journalists during protests at the University of Missouri last year.
Republican Rep. Dean Dohrman, of La Monte, on Tuesday told a House panel that his proposal is a solution to the national attention the Columbia campus has received in response to a run-in between educators and reporters during protests over what some students said was indifference to racial issues on campus by administrators.
"We, and I include ourselves as elected officials, are failing in one of our most fundamental charges in passing on liberty to the next generation," Dohrman said.
Department of Communication assistant professor Melissa Click was charged with misdemeanor assault Monday after a run-in with a student photographer and a videographer in November. She has pleaded innocent to the charge.
Click called for "some muscle" to help remove the videographer, Mark Schierbecker, from the protest area on the Columbia campus. Schierbecker's video of the run-in went viral, and he complained to university police. The incident prompted criticism that she was inhibiting freedom of the press.
Click later said publicly that she regretted her actions, and that she apologized to Schierbecker and all journalists and the university community for detracting from the students' efforts to improve the Columbia campus' racial climate.
No one stood to speak for or against Dohrman's legislation, but a higher education leader disputed legislative estimates that the bill won't cost any money.
Paul Wagner, director of the Council on Public Higher Education in Missouri, said he isn't opposed to additional education on constitutional issues but said adding a new required course will mean expenses. He said more course requirements also will require students to spend more time and money to graduate.
"Please try to resist mandating courses like this," Wagner said.
The bill is one of several proposed in response to recent turmoil at the University of Missouri. The school fell under scrutiny again in the Legislature following the Monday charges against Click, which spurred Republican lawmakers to renew calls for action against her.
Democratic Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, of University City, on the Senate floor Tuesday said the discussion on Click is distracting from what she said are issues of racism at Mizzou. Chappelle-Nadal is running for U.S. Congress.
Dohrman's bill still needs to pass through two House committees before it can go to the full House for debate.