photo by: Screenshot via Twitter

A video shows KU's Phillip Lowcock, a lecturer in the Department of Health, Sport & Exercise Science, making comments in a classroom about lining up and shooting men because they believe a female isn’t smart enough to be president.

One of the nation’s leading free speech groups says the University of Kansas doesn’t have a legal right to discipline an instructor who who made classroom statements about shooting men who would never vote for a woman president.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — FIRE — sent a letter late Friday to KU Chancellor Douglas Girod asking the university to rescind any discipline of Lowcock. The group argues that Phillip Lowcock — a lecturer in the Department of Health, Sport & Exercise Science — should not be punished because his statements clearly were rhetoric rather than an actual threat.

The free speech group is arguing that Lowcock should be allowed back in the classroom at KU. In its letter to Girod, which the group headlined as “urgent,” FIRE argues that KU has no right to punish Lowcock because his statement about shooting certain men is “rhetorical hyperbole” that is protected by the First Amendment.

FIRE contends that KU needs to show that Lowcock’s statement is a “true threat” in order to discipline him. Graham Prio, the faculty legal defense fund fellow for FIRE, said in his letter to Girod that it is clear Lowcock was not making an actual threat.

“He did not identify a specific individual or a reasonably identifiable group of men, nor did he suggest that such men line up to be shot on the spot,” Prio wrote. “The comment therefore cannot be reasonably construed as a serious intent to commit unlawful violence.”

KU and Lowcock drew national attention last week when a video surfaced of Lowcock in a classroom teaching a lesson in a health class. During his lecture, which was being recorded for online broadcast, he said: “What frustrates me is there are going to be some males in our society that will refuse to vote for a potential female president because they don’t think females are smart enough to be president. We could line all those guys up and shoot them. They clearly don’t understand the way the world works.”

Immediately after making the comment about shooting males, Lowcock said: “Did I say that? Scratch that from the recording. I don’t want the deans hearing that I said that.”

The video — which was widely shared on social media and was frequently referenced by Republican commentators — brought denouncements from politicians and others. U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, Republican-Kansas, demanded that KU act quickly to punish Lowcock.

“The University of Kansas must fire this professor immediately,” Marshall said in a statement to media outlets. “Anyone who says that people who don’t vote for Kamala Harris should be ‘lined up and shot’ are completely deranged and shouldn’t be around students nor in academia. This promotion of political violence should be met with quick action by KU.”

On Friday, KU Provost Barbara Bichelmeyer announced in a letter to the university community that Lowcock was no longer with the university. However, the statement stopped well short of saying KU had fired Lowcock. Bichelmeyer simply said “the instructor has left the university.” On Monday, a KU spokeswoman confirmed to the Journal-World that the statement referred to both the university and Kansas Athletics Inc. In addition to holding a lecturer position with KU, several online postings listed Lowcock as having worked for Kansas Athletics as an academic adviser, among other positions. The spokeswoman confirmed Lowcock no longer is employed by the university or Kansas Athletics Inc.

While FIRE is asking for all discipline against Lowcock to be rescinded, it is not clear that Lowcock is seeking anything from KU. In her statement, Bichelmeyer said he had told her that he was sorry for the comments and that he recognized he did “a very poor job” of communicating his message of women’s rights and equality.

Under KU’s Faculty Code of Rights, Lowcock would have had the ability to appeal any decision KU administrators made to remove him from his position as a lecturer. Those appeal processes usually take 60 days or more, so the fact that he already has been removed as a lecturer indicates those appeals weren’t invoked.

Lecturers are not tenured positions, which means KU administrators fairly easily could have decided not to renew his contract as a lecturer in the future. Lecturers also are typically among the lowest paid members of the KU faculty. The website KansasOpenGov listed Lowcock earning just under $9,000 in 2023 as a KU lecturer. That website did not list information about his wages as an employee of Kansas Athletics.

FIRE officials said it is important for KU to act, regardless. In addition to asking for any discipline to be rescinded, FIRE is asking KU to make a statement that “it will not punish faculty for protected classroom speech in the future.”

Prio, the legal official for FIRE, said the issue of hyperbolic threats being protected by the First Amendment is a matter of settled law. He said the U.S. Supreme Court decided the issue in Watts v United States, a 1969 case where a Vietnam War draftee faced legal consequences for stating “If they ever make me carry a rifle the first man I want to get in my sights is L.B.J.,” a reference to President Lyndon B. Johnson. In that case, the court ruled the statement was protected under the First Amendment because it was not a true threat.

FIRE has asked KU to provide a “substantive response” by Friday to their request that all discipline against Lowcock be dropped.

Meanwhile, two faculty leaders at KU said they are withholding judgement on whether KU administrators have acted appropriately in the Lowcock matter.

Josh Arpin, University Senate president, told the Journal-World that he had not yet been able to talk with the provost or Lowcock about the matter, due to KU being on fall break from Friday through Tuesday.

“In the coming weeks, I will be gathering additional information about the incident and will be discussing the matter with my faculty and university senate colleagues before deciding what actions we may or may not take as a governance body,” Arpin said in an email to the Journal-World.

Samuel Hayim Brody, Faculty Senate president, also told the Journal-World that he was withholding comment about the incident until he had an opportunity to discuss the matter with the Faculty Senate.