A professor at the University of Kansas has been placed on administrative leave after he was filmed saying men won’t vote for women based on their intelligence should be ‘lined up and shot.’
Phillip Lowcock, a faculty member in KU’s Department of Health, Sport and Exercise Science was speaking in a university lecture hall in front of a group of students as he made the unnerving remarks.
‘When you have guys that think you are smarter than girls you’ve got some serious problems,’ Lowcock began.
‘It’s what frustrates me. There are going to be some males in our society that will still 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 ’em. They clearly don’t understand the way world works,’ he added.
Moments after making the statement it’s clear that Lowcock knew his ill-advised comments would be poorly received.
‘Did I say that? Scratch that from the recordings. I don’t want the deans hearing that I said that!’ he said, still on camera.
Unfortunately for Lowcock the video clip which was recorded earlier in the semester has since gone viral with more than 3 million views since it was posted on Wednesday morning.
The university was relatively quick to act and within seven hours of the video being posted was forced to place Lowcock on administrative leave while issuing a statement of apology.
‘The instructor offers his sincerest apologies and deeply regrets the situation. His intent was to emphasize his advocacy for women’s rights and equality, and he recognizes he did a very poor job of doing so,’ the university said in a statement.
Lowcock had been a presence at the university since 1984 when he worked as a graduate teaching assistant. He instructs a class ‘taken by a majority of freshman student-athletes.’
As of 2015, he was an academic adviser for multiple athletics teams while doing support work for international student-athletes.
Those commenting on the video appeared confused over the context of the discussion being held.
A lesson plan on the screen was titled ‘Sleep Cycles’ with content appearing to be discuss the differences of the amount of sleep men and women get.
Those commenting on X included Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall who said the video was ‘disturbing’, that the professor is ‘deranged’ and ‘shouldn’t be around students or academia.’
Fellow Kansas Republican Senator Jerry Moran added: ‘This is disturbing and inappropriate. There should never be a call for violence anytime or anywhere in the classroom. We must cool down the political rhetoric and be respectful and civil to each other, & that is especially true for someone charged with teaching our young people.’
National free speech group the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, defended Lowcock and asked for the university not to punish him calling Lowcock’s comments an ‘off-handed joke’ rather than a serious intention to commit violence.
‘The First Amendment protects professors who tell brief, off-topic jokes in the classroom,’ a statement from FIRE read.
‘It also protects hyperbole. In order to constitute a true threat, a speaker must communicate a serious intent to commit an act of unlawful violence against a specific individual or a group of individuals.’
FIRE called Lowcock’s comments an ‘off-handed joke’ rather than a serious intention to commit violence, which is protected speech, the statement said.