University hires Black Lives Matter activist Caleb Stephens, who threatened Dean Paul Smokowski
Caleb Stephens made a name for himself in Lawrence, Kansas, making headlines two years ago when he corned Dean Paul Smokowski, who has since left KU, and was ultimately banned from campus.
Now, Stephens, a licensed social worker and activist with the local Black Lives Matter chapter will reportedly return the University of Kansas – this time as an University of Kansas employee.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that the public university hired Stephens “as a graduate teaching assistant in the department of theater, where he is also a doctoral student.”
Stephens cornered the social work dean in his office “unannounced and without an appointment” and ordered him to send a message that Stephens would dictate back in December 2015. The incident has been recounted in the letter to Stephens:
You then began shouting at the Dean, from the doorway, and your voice could be heard up and down the halls. Your shouting — captured on video that I reviewed — disrupted classrooms, and caused instructors and other students to fear for their personal safety. …
Please note that if you engage in a similar disruptive and threatening conduct in other University buildings, you may be subject to arrest for disorderly conduct, and this ban may be expanded to include the entire campus.
The Journal-World describes Stephens’ interaction with the dean as a “profanity-laced tirade.”
A university spokesman confirmed he’s banned from the hall until 2019 but wouldn’t say if the 2015 incident was considered in Stephens’ hiring.
The newspaper credited the news of Stephens’ hiring to a tipster who also contacted the chancellor’s office: The anonymous sender was concerned about Stephens’ language on Facebook, in which he wrote — seemingly in response to an issue of racial injustice — that “yt (white) people are such pieces of (expletive),” with “no accountability and responsibility.”
Stephens admitted he used the word “f**k” throughout his tirade against Smokowski because the dean “didn’t f***ing care about” people of color and was ignoring the requirements of his Behavioral Science Regulatory Board licensure.
The activist said he did not “threaten him in any way” and remained “at least three to four feet away from him” in the office.
photo/ Gerd Altmann via pixabay
