Update as of 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 16
In a statement posted to Texas State’s website, Texas State President Kelly Damphousse said the individual has been identified as a student and expelled.
“The individual is no longer a student at TXST,” Damphousse wrote in the statement. “Federal law prevents the university from commenting further on individual student conduct matters.”
Damphousse’s statement of the expulsion was made less than five hours after his initial statement that Texas State was looking for the individual.
Damphousse condemned comments stating that the former students actions were reflective of the university or student body as a whole.
“These kinds of insinuations are unfair to our student body, and they cause some of our students to feel unsafe,” Damphousse wrote in an email to the Texas State community. “Just as the behavior in the video was reprehensible, attempts to spread the blame onto innocent students are also unacceptable. The actions of one person do not reflect our entire community or the individuals in it.”
Damphousse also called on members of the Texas State community to “consider the impact that our words and actions can have on those around us.”
“While I cannot control what others say or do, I can control how I respond to them,” Damphousse wrote in an email. “I ask that we all seek ways to lift our campus up to its noblest aspirations in the days and weeks to come.”
This incident marks the second time in a week that Texas State has removed an individual from the campus due to an incident involving speech.
Original Story
Texas State is looking for an individual after Gov. Greg Abbott shared a video of someone “mocking” Charlie Kirk’s death during a Monday memorial.
The video is 40 seconds long, with the individual gesturing to his neck stating, “Charlie Kirk got hit in the neck [expletive], he’s dead homie.” before gesturing to his neck again, jerking his head and getting on The Stallions to act out Kirk’s death. He then gets up and spits on the ground before saying “[expletive] that [expletive].”
Abbott reposted the video at 11:17 a.m., stating that “the conduct is not accepted at our schools,” and to “expel the individual immediately.” Texas State can not comment at this time on whether the individual in the video is a student.
Texas State President Kelly Damphousse posted his statement on Facebook, Instagram and X right after 12:30 p.m., less than an hour and a half after Abbott’s original post.
At 12:56 p.m., Damphousse posted an additional statement on X, stating that Texas State currently does not know the identity of the individual, but he has directed university officials to take immediate action to find the person and his affiliation with Texas State. There were also additional individuals who Damphousse stated “engaged in other forms of unacceptable behavior.” He has asked those individuals to be investigated by the Dean of Students, also. Damphousse said the actions are antithetical to Texas State values.
University officials told The Star that the University Police Department and Texas State Administration is looking for the individual, but cannot comment at this time if the individual is affiliated with the university.
This comes after Texas Tech University expelled a student on Sept. 15 after a video of her at a Charlie Kirk vigil went viral, with Abbott also commenting on it on X.
Dominic Coletti, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression’s student programs officer, said he did not see anything in the video that would call for an investigation, however he said that he wasn’t working with the full set of facts.
“I don’t see anything that would be a violation of state law. Obviously, there may be more to the story that we haven’t seen yet, but if this is all that there is and we are looking at the kind of the whole picture, then this is deeply concerning,” Coletti said. “This appears to be a sitting governor demanding that a university investigate, not even investigate, but expel a student for protected speech, right?”
This is a developing story. The University Star will provide updates as they become available.
