ASU investigating assault on queer professor as ‘potential bias or prejudicially motivated incident’
Oct 13, 2023, 3:27 PM | Updated: 5:11 pm
Arizona State University is investigating after a queer professor, David Boyles, was allegedly assaulted by members of a right wing group on campus earlier this week. (X Screenshot/Turning Point USA)
(X Screenshot/Turning Point USA)
PHOENIX — Arizona State University is investigating after a queer professor was allegedly assaulted by members of a right wing group on campus earlier this week.
The incident involving English instructor David Boyles and members of Turning Point USA happened in the Fulton Garage on the university’s Tempe campus around 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, according to the ASU Police Department.
Turning Point’s members approach Boyles on campus and attempt to ask him questions regarding sex education.
Boyles refuses to answer the questions. The Turning Point crew, which included a cameraman, continues to follow Boyles to the parking structure.
Security footage shows Boyles try to move away a camera before being shoved in the back to the ground by one of the men.
ASU said it was investigating the interaction as a “potential bias or prejudicially motivated incident.”
ASU Police has released video of the incident. pic.twitter.com/S1K9mWOJZ8
— KTAR News 92.3 (@KTAR923) October 14, 2023
Turning Point USA also posted video of the incident.
Turning Point claimed their cameraman was the one assaulted.
“Our team fully intends to share this footage with local law enforcement, and if our cameraman decides to press criminal charges against Professor Boyle, we will fully support that decision,” Turning Point said in a social media post.
Boyles’ classes “focus on examining the different rhetorical contexts in which writing occurs and the rhetorical aspects of visuals and digital media,” according to his ASU biography.
He co-founded Drag Story Hour Arizona, which aims to “bring inclusive story times to the children of Arizona and their grown-ups,” in 2019.
Boyles is featured on Turning Point’s Professor Watchlist, which exists “to expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.”
