Student: School ‘covered up’ prof who shot himself to ‘protest’ Trump
A student at the College of Southern Nevada says the school "covered up" the fact that last week a professor shot himself in the arm to "protest" President Donald Trump.
The student said that the school has been quiet about the incident because the professor has left-leaning views.
He said that the school did not offer counseling services to the students who saw the professor walk out of the bathroom, bleeding.
College of Southern Nevada Sociology Professor Emeritus Mark Bird, who shot himself in the arm with a .22 pistol in a campus restroom to “protest” President Donald Trump, remains employed. Students, though, say the school has yet to address the incident with them.
Authorities were called to the campus on August 28, after several students and faculty saw Bird stumbling out of the bathroom, bleeding. According to the police report, Bird said he shot himself in the arm in “protest of President Trump.”
Bird, who has been working for the school since 1993, taped a $100 bill to the mirror before carrying out his protest. The bill was left as a tip “for the janitors” who were left to clean up the bloody mess.
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Remington Longley, a political science student, told Campus Reform that he was in the next building over from the shooting when the incident occurred.
“The school completely covered it up,” Longley said, adding that the school “never released a statement.”
“It was never addressed by any of my professors. It was completely swept under the rug as far as I’m concerned.”
According to Longley, most students were under the impression that the professor had killed himself, only to find out 14 days later via a report by The Las Vegas Review-Journal, what had actually taken place. Without news coverage, he says, students would still be in the dark about the gunshot, crime scene, or police presence they witnessed.
The school has made no public offer of counseling or support to students who witnessed their bloody professor stumbling out of a public restroom.
Longley believes the school has kept quiet about the incident because of the political nature of the professor’s ‘protest,’ claiming that the university generally favors and protects professors with left-leaning viewpoints. “This is the new norm now where they’re going to walk into a bathroom and plug themselves and then [the] school is going to sweep it under the rug?”
He contends that not only are liberal views favored, but that conservative students are being discriminated against on campus. “The campus as a whole is very left-leaning and very discriminatory against anybody who isn’t left, including moderates,” he stated, adding “if this professor had been a Republican, I feel personally that they would have definitely published everything” about the incident. After being treated for his non-life-threatening injury, the 69-year-old Bird was arrested and charged with discharging a gun within a prohibited structure or “gun free zone,” carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, and possessing a dangerous weapon on school property.
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CSN photography student Angelique Clark who arrived on campus just a few hours after the shooting, told Campus Reform she believes this incident is indicative of a need for change surrounding how firearms are addressed on campus.
“Learning that this social studies professor shot himself on a ‘gun-free zone’ campus as a way to protest our president demonstrates two things for me: the first, that gun-free zones don’t work in practice and the second, that inciting violence to make a personal political statement is insane- not heroic,” she said.
“The same side that protests Trump is the same side that would rather blame guns than people. No amount of gun-free square-feet is going to stop an armed individual with a mental illness and a vendetta. A gun-free zone is like erecting a ‘crime-free zone.’ The only people who will deface the sentiment are the criminals. If anything, a ‘gun-free zone’ tells a nefarious individual that their gun-related incident won’t see crossfire.”
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“Let’s put away the ‘free speech zones’ and the ‘gun free zones’ and stop hiding from the world. Being closer to reality will better equip teachers and students on campus to recognize when a real threat exists, and respond effectively,” she added.
Longley also stated that while he is not afraid to go to school, the incident of a professor firing a firearm into a “gun free zone” reinforced his belief that students should be able to open carry their own guns on campus in order to protect themselves.
The College of Southern Nevada told Campus Reform that the professor remains employed at the college but “is no longer allowed on any CSN campus,” adding that “the safety of our faculty, staff, and students has been and will remain the number one priority at CSN.”
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