Hunter
04/27/20
A Kirkwood Community College adjunct professor will be getting a $25,000 payment from the college after his political statements on social media drew criticism.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, reports that Jeff Klinzman was told in August last year to either resign or be removed from the classroom after he commented on the Iowa Antifa Facebook group page. The previous month, president Donald Trump tweeted that antifa is a “major Organization of Terror” whose members go around hitting “people over the heads with baseball bats.” Klinzman commented, “Yeah, I know who I’d clock with a bat.”
A previous post from 2012 critical of the anti-gay climate in Minnesota also was brought to light.
News outlets singled out Klinzman’s comments, causing an outcry that the college said would have caused safety concerns had he been allowed to keep teaching. Klinzman opted to resign.
On Friday, Kirkwood agreed to pay Klinzman $25,000, which is the amount it would have paid him to continue teaching for over three and a half years.
Klinzman will not return to work at the community college.
