Kansas teacher on leave after ‘inappropriate reference to violence’ during class

Strong Hall at the University of Kansas pictured in August 2020. (Photo by Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

LAWRENCE – The University of Kansas placed a faculty member on administrative leave Wednesday after a video surfaced in which he suggested that men who refuse to vote for a female president solely because she is a woman should be shot.

A KU spokeswoman identified the teacher as Phillip Lowcock, a faculty member in KU’s department of health, sport and exercise sciences. His comments during a lecture earlier this semester were posted to the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday morning and had been viewed more than 2 million times by the afternoon.

In it Lowcock says the following:

“There will be men in our society who will refuse to vote for a potential female president because they think women are not smart enough to be president. We can line up all these guys and shoot them. They clearly don’t understand how the world works.”

He continued: “Did I say that? Delete that from the recording. I don’t want the deans to hear that I said that.”

KU issued a statement through

“The instructor sincerely apologizes and deeply regrets the situation. “His intention was to emphasize his advocacy for women’s rights and equality, and he acknowledges that he has done a very poor job in doing so,” the statement said.

Ned Ryun, a conservative pundit and activist and son of former Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun of Kansas, initially posted the 32-second video to X, tagging Kansas’ current U.S. senators.

U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, also a Republican, wrote in a post on

The senator also called on KU to fire Lowcock.

The national freedom group, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, defended Lowcock and asked KU not to punish him.

“The First Amendment protects professors who tell short, off-topic jokes in class,” a statement from FIRE said. “It also protects against hyperbole. To constitute a genuine threat, a speaker must express a serious intention to commit an act of unlawful violence against a specific individual or group of individuals.”

FIRE called Lowcock’s comments a “thoughtless joke” rather than a serious intent to commit violence, which are protected speech, the statement said.

A statement from Kansas Republican Party Chairman Mike Brown misidentified Lowcock as former KU journalism professor David Guth, who the university also placed on leave more than a decade ago when he made critical comments about the National Rifle Association, according to a 2013 report from the National Rifle Association. Lawrence Journal-World. Guth retired in 2019, according to his KU website and personal resume.

Brown falsely attributed Lowcock’s comments in the video posted to

Brown also condemned the rhetoric in the video. “Every legislature should examine their funding of programs that allow this type of extremism to persist, and every parent should look for institutions that align with their core values,” Brown said.

The Republican Party later issued a correction acknowledging the false attribution, adding that both Lowcock and Guth “worked for the University of Kansas, and both their comments are despicable.”

Kansas’ Democratic Governor Laura Kelly said in a statement that violent rhetoric is unacceptable.

“We must strive to make our classrooms a place where diverse viewpoints are respectfully discussed, and politics should not be weaponized to make our students feel unsafe or demonized for having different opinions,” she said. “I appreciate the university’s quick action to address this matter.”

Republican U.S. Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas called the video “disturbing and inappropriate” in a post on X. He condemned calls for violence in classrooms and emphasized softening political rhetoric and valuing respect and civility.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican, posted a message on X criticizing the Kansas Board of Regents. He wrote:

“KS Regents: We educate leaders, build communities and make discoveries that change the world.

KU prof: Some men in our society will refuse to vote for a female Prez because they think women are not smart enough to be Prez. We can line up all these guys and shoot them.”

KU’s Faculty Code of Rights, Responsibilities and Conduct states that faculty members maintain the legal rights and privileges of citizens. They have “the right to academic freedom and the right to freedom of research, expression and assembly.”

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