A petition to fire the Fresno State professor who called the late Barbara Bush “an amazing racist” has attracted over 10,000 signatures as of Tuesday morning.

The appeal calls upon California State University, Fresno to terminate the employment of English professor Randa Jarrar for comments she made about Bush shortly after her death.

“Immediate termination of Professor Randa Jarrar for racism and inflammatory comments regarding a former First Lady of the United States, Barbara Bush,” the petition reads.

Jarrar has come under fire after calling Bush “an amazing racist” and said she was happy that “the witch is dead,” just hours after she died.



The professor, who’s currently subject to an internal university investigation and on leave for the semester, also boasted that she can’t be fired because she’s a tenured professor.

“I work as a tenured professor. I make 100K a year doing that. I will never be fired. I will always have people wanting to hear what I have to say,” she wrote on Twitter.



Jarrar also drew the ire of people for posting a phone number for a crisis hotline at Arizona State University, falsely claiming that’s her number. The hotline, normally receives just a few calls per week, was flooded with calls.

The controversy over the professor’s remarks prompted some donors to the university to consider pulling out financial support if Jarrar isn’t removed from the position.

Ed Dunkel Jr., who made sizable financial contributions to Fresno State, said he will await the outcome of the controversy before deciding whether to close his checkbook.

“I have a lot of friends that I've been talking to, and these are people who donate now and talking about holding back, and some are even questioning whether to send their kids to Fresno State," Dunkel told the Fresno Bee.



But while Fresno State leadership has condemned Jarrar for her comments about Bush, she received backing from advocacy groups, saying her speech was protected under the First Amendment.

“Jarrar’s tweets are unquestionably protected speech under the First Amendment and Fresno State has no power to censor, punish, or terminate Jarrar for them,” Adam Steinbaugh, senior program officer for FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education), said in a statement to Fox News.

The embattled professor was also applauded at a literary festival she was forced to withdraw from amid the controversy.

hard to believe it took a week for someone to post this.

People are forgetting the basic principle. The Constitution and the amendments are there to protect the citizens from the govt. Freedom of speech on matters in terms of govt,not in terms of employment and personal matters.

This sounds like the idiotic shit Julie says when she tries to get people fired.

Free speech as a principle must extend further than just protection from the government.

Probably because those of us who say we support free speech actually support free speech and thus aren't calling for her to be fired.

Doesn't mean we can't make fun of an idiot.

Her comments re Barbara Bush are not fireable (nor should they be), but her sending out a suicide hotline number as her own and causing it to crash for 2 days possibly is.

This.

In the end, this was probably more about her 1) making herself a martyr and 2) getting some attention. This could lead to many, many speaking gigs for her.

The willful lack of nuance from a woman of letters scares the shit out of me--but the fact that we can respond reassures me somewhat. But still--nuance. That's what smart people do.

Her comments re Barbara Bush are not fireable (nor should they be), but her sending out a suicide hotline number as her own and causing it to crash for 2 days possibly is.

If a donor pulls their big money regular donations because of the Bush comments (or backlash to them), there is a legitimate question as to whether her statements impacted the ability of the institution to perform its function, which would legitimize her ouster without raising first amendment concerns.

If you're going to call for the firing of someone over their views, you're going to have to enter JDC territory.

This is just another facet of the "boycott" culture. You're really no better than that piece of shit David Hogg if you're going to enter that realm.

Ain't that the truth.

Ain't that the truth.

Good thing that's not what I'm doing, then.

Not directly, but you're getting close to that territory when you encourage donors to exert pressure in that direction. I'm proud to see organizations such as FIRE take a stand here (the late, great Dr. Milt Rosenberg was on their board). Usually they are taking the stand for conservatives on campus (as usually they are the ones being denied free speech) so it's nice to see them take an ideologically consistent stand and fight for liberal free speech as well.

I'm not encouraging anything, I'm saying what she could be fired for that courts likely wouldn't see as a free speech violation by her employer (the State of California).

Honestly tho, who really gives a fuck what this lady says?