Critics say Arizona State University President Michael Crow failed to exercise the critical thinking he touts when he did not fully investigate the allegations made by Professor David Boyles before accusing Turning Point USA (TPUSA) members of injuring the man.
Crow, who is under fire for his reaction to pro-Hamas protests on campus last week, condemned the controversial conservative group members based on a conversation he had with Boyles, a self-professed “sex education obsessed” queer advocate and a snippet of a video released by the ASU Police Department.
“Earlier this week, Dr. David Boyles, an instructor in the ASU English Department, was followed, harassed, pushed, and injured by two men identified by Turning Point USA as their “reporter” and “cameraman,” wrote Crow to faculty and students.
In response, TPUSA released the video on Twitter in its entirety showing that the professor clearly assaulted the cameraman:
“Our TPUSA Frontlines reporter tried to ask self-professed “sex education obsessed” queer ASU Professor David Boyles, a few simple questions. Refusing to answer, our cameras caught the exact moment Mr. Boyles assaulted, pushed, and clawed at our cameraman.
The reporter then attempted to remove Professor Boyles from our cameraman, which caused Mr. Boyles to fall and scrape his face on the ground.
Boyles’s assault resulted in a disconnected wire that caused the video to cut out immediately after his first lunge, but the video is clear that Mr. Boyles, in a moment of rage, initiated a physical altercation and attacked our crew.
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.”
🚨ASU Professor assaults TPUSA cameraman, caught on video 🚨
Our TPUSA Frontlines reporter tried to ask self-professed “sex education obsessed” queer ASU Professor David Boyles, a few simple questions. Refusing to answer, our cameras caught the exact moment Mr. Boyles assaulted,… pic.twitter.com/YJWBEzSgRx
— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) October 13, 2023
According to AZFREE News, Boyles is credited with establishing Drag Story Hour Arizona in 2019.
“For his drag queen story hour work, Boyles has been featured in several “The Art of Drag” events alongside one of his drag queen storytellers, hosted by various local libraries and Arizona Humanities, a nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) United We Stand initiative,” reported AZFREE News.
Boyles has promoted drag for minors, encouraging “people to advocate for LGBTQ+-inclusive, pleasure-centered sex education for minors,” according to the AZFREE News report.
In his letter Crow claims that “while Turning Point USA has been featured in and has hosted public events at ASU and the university has supported its right to do so, the same organization is ironically using intimidation, embarrassment and bullying to prevent others from speaking in ways with which it disagrees.”
However, this year Crow and ASU became the center of controversy when the benefactor behind The T.W. Lewis Foundation, Tom Lewis, pulled funding from the ASU-Barrett Center for Personal Development. after the former executive director of the Center said, in an opinion piece published in The Wall Street Journal, that she was being fired and the Center was closing because she organized an event featuring TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, Robert Kiyosaki and Dennis Prager.
Ann Atkinson noted in her opinion piece that the February event “outraged” faculty members at ASU’s honors college, Barrett, which housed the center.
“After seeing this level of left-wing hostility and activism, I no longer had any confidence in Barrett to adhere to the terms of our gift, and made the decision to terminate our agreement, effective June 30, 2023,” stated Lewis in a press release. “I regret that this decision was necessary, and hope that Barrett and ASU will take strong action to ensure that free speech will always be protected and that all voices can be heard.”
Over the years, ASU has become increasingly intolerant of speech, especially conservative speech. So much so that in June, Arizona State Rep. Austin Smith called on the Arizona Board of Regents to investigate allegations that officials at ASU have frequently quashed free speech. Smith’s concerns centered around Atkinson’s allegations and the case of student Tim Tizon, who was arrested and charged “for handing out copies of the U.S. Constitution on campus.”
“It is my understanding that those charges have finally been dropped,” advised Smith, referring to Tizon. “Nonetheless, this student required the services of national free-speech legal advocates, embarrassing the university and the State. Then just this past week, an ASU employee reported in an editorial to the Wall Street Journal that at least two employees involved in the arranging of speakers for a career and life advice event were recently terminated.”
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