JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The University of North Florida has fired a professor for allegedly telling students he would shoot them a day after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
The Faculty Union said the instructor is fighting that decision.
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The instructor claims this was all a joke that was misunderstood.
But according to his termination letter, from Karen Patterson, the university’s Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs claims the instructor admitted the comments had no relevance to the discussion or his course syllabus and “did not demonstrate self-reflection or remorse.”
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According to the termination letter obtained by Action News Jax, visiting UNF English instructor Jacob McElroy is accused of telling students he had access to guns, was crazy, and would shoot them during a lecture on Sept. 11, one day after Kirk’s assassination.
The letter indicates Patterson had reviewed an audio recording of the incident, in which McElroy can also allegedly be heard saying he, “harassed students and would ‘every now and then’ fail a student ‘just for fun.’”
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Despite Florida’s two-party consent law, which generally prohibits recording an individual without their consent, a law passed in 2021 allows students to record video and audio of class lectures for their own personal educational use or “in connection with a complaint to the public institution of higher education where the recording was made.”
According to the letter, McElroy’s termination is set for December 17, but the United Faculty of Florida’s UNF chapter said the union is moving forward with a formal grievance.
We’ve contacted the instructor named in the termination letter for comment. Action News Jax’s Jake Stofan spoke to him. Click here to read that part of the story.
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