Universities treated free speech as expendable in 2025



The fight over free expression in American higher education reached a troubling milestone in 2025. According to data from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, efforts to censor speech on college campuses hit record highs across multiple fronts — and most succeeded.

Let’s start with the raw numbers. In 2025, FIRE’s Scholars Under Fire, Students Under Fire, and Campus Deplatforming databases collectively tracked:

  • 525 attempts to sanction scholars for their speech, more than one a day, with 460 of them resulting in punishment.
  • 273 attempts to punish students for expression, more than five a week, with 176 of these attempts succeeding.
  • 160 attempts to deplatform speakers, about three each week, with 99 of them succeeding.

That’s 958 censorship attempts in total, nearly three per day on campuses across the country. For comparison, FIRE’s next-highest total was 477 two years ago.

The 525 scholar sanction attempts are the highest ever recorded in FIRE’s database, which spans 2000 to the present. Even when a large-scale incident at the U.S. Naval Academy is treated as just a single entry, the 2025 total still breaks records.

The common denominator across these censorship campaigns is not ideology — it’s intolerance.

Twenty-nine scholars were fired, including 18 who were terminated since September for social media comments about Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Student sanction attempts also hit a new high, and deplatforming efforts — our records date back to 1998 — rank third all-time, behind 2023 and 2024.

The problem is actually worse because FIRE’s data undercounts the true scale of campus censorship. Why? The data relies on publicly available information, and an unknown number of incidents, especially those that may involve quiet administrative pressure, never make the public record.

Then there’s the chilling effect.

Scholars are self-censoring. Students are staying silent. Speakers are being disinvited or shouted down. And administrators, eager to appease the loudest voices, are launching investigations and handing out suspensions and dismissals with questionable regard for academic freedom, due process, or free speech.

RELATED: Liberals’ twisted views on Charlie Kirk assassination, censorship captured by a damning poll

Deagreez via iStock/Getty Images

Some critics argue that the total number of incidents is small compared to the roughly 4,000 colleges in the country. But this argument collapses under scrutiny.

While there are technically thousands of institutions labeled as “colleges” or “universities,” roughly 600 of them educate about 80% of undergraduates enrolled at not-for-profit four-year schools. Many of the rest of these “colleges” and “universities” are highly specialized or vocational programs. This includes a number of beauty academies, truck-driving schools, and similar institutions — in other words, campuses that aren’t at the heart of the free-speech debate.

These censorship campaigns aren’t coming from only one side of the political spectrum. FIRE’s data shows, for instance, that liberal students are punished for pro-Palestinian activism, conservative faculty are targeted for controversial opinions on gender or race, and speaking events featuring all points of view are targeted for cancellation.

The two most targeted student groups on campus? Students for Justice in Palestine and Turning Point USA. If that doesn’t make this point clear, nothing will.

The common denominator across these censorship campaigns is not ideology — it’s intolerance.

RELATED: Teenager sues high school after tribute to Charlie Kirk was called vandalism

rudall30 via iStock/Getty Images

So where do we go from here?

We need courage: from faculty, from students, and especially from administrators. It’s easy to defend speech when it’s popular. It’s harder when the ideas are offensive or inconvenient. But that’s when it matters most.

Even more urgently, higher education needs a cultural reset. Universities must recommit to the idea that exposure to ideas and speech that one dislikes or finds offensive is not “violence.” That principle is essential for democracy, not just for universities.

This year’s record number of campus censorship attempts should be a wake-up call for campus administrators. For decades, many allowed a culture of censorship to fester, dismissing concerns as overblown, isolated, or a politically motivated myth. Now, with governors, state legislatures, members of Congress, and even the White House moving aggressively to police campus expression, some administrators are finally pushing back. But this pushback from administrators doesn’t seem principled. Instead, it seems more like an attempt to shield their institutions from outside political interference.

That’s not leadership. It’s damage control. And it’s what got higher education into this mess in the first place.

If university leaders want to reclaim their role as stewards of free inquiry, they cannot act just when governmental pressure threatens their autonomy. They also need to be steadfast when internal intolerance threatens their mission. A true commitment to academic freedom means defending expression even when it is unpopular or offensive. That is the price of intellectual integrity in a free society.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

'Whack-a-mole': FBI allegedly fires, rehires, then refires agents linked to Jack Smith's anti-GOP Arctic Frost crusade



Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) published damning documents last month detailing how the Biden FBI not only secretly obtained the private phone records of numerous Republican lawmakers but subpoenaed records for over 400 Republican individuals and entities as part of what the Iowa senator called a "fishing expedition."

Grassley noted last week that Operation Arctic Frost, the "fishing expedition" in question, "was the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus."

'The road to reform is long.'

Amid the backlash over the latest insights into the Biden administration's yearslong apparent campaign to criminalize its political opponents, the FBI began canning some of the agents involved in Arctic Frost whose names appeared in the newly released documents. While the bureau handed out numerous pink slips in recent days, it evidently had issues making them stick.

Last week, the FBI reportedly fired at least two agents who had worked on the Arctic Frost investigation.

CNN originally reported that Aaron Tapp, the special agent in charge of the FBI's San Antonio office who previously had an oversight role on Arctic Frost, was among those fired, though it has since indicated that he was forced into retiring.

RELATED: Bondi exposes ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ Arctic Frost action against Trump by Biden admin

Jack Smith. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

On Monday, the bureau allegedly canned another four agents who worked on Smith's team: Jeremy Desor; Blaire Toleman, a Chicago-based agent who once led a now-defunct public corruption squad; David Geist, a former assistant special agent in charge of the bureau's Washington field office; and Jamie Garman, an agent who was placed on administrative leave early last month, reported Reuters.

"The public has a right to know how the government's spending their hard-earned tax dollars, and if agents were engaged in wrongdoing they ought to be held accountable," Sen. Grassley said in a statement. "Transparency brings accountability."

Multiple sources told Reuters that at least two of the terminations — Toleman's and Geist's — were rescinded later in the day, along with a number of other terminations that allegedly took place on Monday.

Sources familiar with the matter told CNN that Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, had intervened on Monday to reverse the firings of least four fired FBI agents. One source said she weighed in on account of the agents' involvement in the Trump administration's crackdown on criminality in the national capital.

This last-minute rescue was, however, apparently as short-lived as the initial terminations. The FBI reportedly fired the agents again on Tuesday.

It's presently unclear how many agents were officially canned.

The FBI and Pirro's office did not immediately respond to Blaze News' request for comment.

The FBI Agents Association complained in a statement on Tuesday that "the actions yesterday — in which FBI Special Agents were terminated and then reinstated shortly after — highlight the chaos that occurs when long-standing policies and processes are ignored. An Agent simply being assigned to an investigation and conducting it appropriately within the law should never be grounds for termination."

"Director Patel has disregarded the law and launched a campaign of erratic and arbitrary retribution," added the group.

Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News, "Individual accountability for participation in or oversight of weaponized operations such as Arctic Frost should absolutely be imposed. I'm glad some have been fired for this, and I am sure they will sue and be well represented."

"The personnel laws are very restrictive to accountability, which certainly makes accountability harder, especially when considering termination versus reassignment," continued Howell. "That being said, you can't have weaponized individuals still at the FBI, that just should not ever be an acceptable option. The road to reform is long."

Howell added, "I'd like to see more thought given to systemic reform at the FBI so it can't operate institutionally as it did during the Biden years especially. Whack-a-mole on weaponized individuals is tough work, but the FBI and government should also mitigate the potential for them to abuse power again."

Editor's note: Mike Howell is a contributor at Blaze News.

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Florida classroom assistant jailed after 'knee-jerk' physical reaction to 6-year-old autism student's behavior: Cops



A 65-year-old male working as a substitute classroom assistant at a Florida elementary school was arrested for child abuse last week, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said.

David Jones was assigned to a special-needs classroom at Oakhurst Elementary School in Largo, deputies said.

'As a special-needs mom, I’d probably be in a lot of trouble if that was my kid.'

After lunch on Sept. 15, a 6-year-old — who has autism and is semi-verbal — was hitting and kicking as a sign of communication, deputies said.

Jones swung a lunch box containing a metal canister, striking the victim in the face and causing a welt on the victim’s forehead, deputies said.

On Sept.16, deputies said Jones admitted to the incident and stated it was a “knee-jerk” reaction when dealing with the victim, whom he knew has special needs.

Jones was charged with one count of child abuse and taken to the Pinellas County Jail, deputies said.

Jail records indicate that Jones — who stands 6'1'' and weighs 280 pounds — was booked into jail Sept. 16 and released on his own recognizance Sept. 17.

RELATED: Arrested school district superintendent resigns amid claims that teachers mentally, verbally abused special-needs students

WTSP-TV said in a Sept. 16 broadcast that Pinellas County Schools fired Jones.

"Pinellas County Schools has zero tolerance for staff behavior that jeopardizes student safety or the integrity of our schools. The safety and well-being of our students remain our highest priority, and we are committed to ensuring that every child is treated with kindness, dignity, and respect," the district told the station in a statement.

Numerous individuals were livid over the incident. Here's a brief sampling:

  • "I am beyond over seeing this type of behavior from adults," one commenter said. "Granted special-needs child[ren] can be challenging, but it’s the school's responsibility to ensure proper training and to protect all children in their care. I am a mom of a special-needs adult now, and this really hits hard! Glad they have done the right thing!"
  • "Schools need to do better screening teachers and staff," another commenter noted.
  • "As a special-needs mom, I’d probably be in a lot of trouble if that was my kid," another commenter admitted. "There is absolutely no reason for that."

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Getting Fired For Celebrating Kirk’s Assassination Is Not Cancel Culture, It’s Accountability

Celebrating the brutal murder of a civilian lacks morals and requires far more accountability than mere ‘cancel culture’ can afford.

Trump fires Biden Fed governor for possible 'criminal conduct' — but Lisa Cook is desperate to cling to power



President Donald Trump informed Lisa Cook on Monday that her time on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors has come to an end.

The Biden-nominated governor did not handle the news well, indicating that she will challenge the president's authority to remove executive branch employees, setting the stage for a legal battle that could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The president's recent successes in similar battles over removals of high-level bureaucrats and his ability to fire Federal Reserve board members "for cause" bodes poorly for Cook, who may soon also face criminal charges.

Quick background

Former President Joe Biden nominated Cook, a race-obsessed economist who served on Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, to join the Federal Reserve's board of governors in January 2021.

Critics largely opposed her nomination because of her leftist worldview and her relative lack of experience.

"There's very little on Dr. Cook’s CV to suggest she knows the ins and outs of monetary policy," economics professor Alexander William Salter noted ahead of Cook's confirmation in May 2022. "During her nomination hearing on February 3, she listed one promising qualification: election to the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. But this happened less than a month prior, on January 13 (effective January 1)! Nobody is this quick a study."

RELATED: Supreme Court sides with Trump on firing of officials from independent federal agencies

Photographer: Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images

"Professor Cook has no proven expertise in monetary economics at all, much less fighting inflation," Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said prior to Cook's confirmation vote. "Professor Cook is a proven partisan who has promoted left-wing conspiracy theories and called for a fellow academic to be fired because that person did not support defunding the police."

Cook ultimately squeaked through the confirmation process with the help of a tie-breaking vote from then-Vice President Kamala Harris.

Housing crisis

Earlier this month, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte sent a criminal referral for Cook to the Justice Department.

Pulte told Attorney General Pam Bondi in an Aug. 15 letter that mortgage documents appear to indicate that Cook "has falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud under the criminal statute."

'The American people must be able to have full confidence in the honesty of the members entrusted with setting policy and overseeing the Federal Reserve.'

"This has included falsifying residence statuses for an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based residence and an Atlanta, Georgia-based property in order to potentially secure lower interest rates and more favorable loan terms," continued Pulte.

Two weeks after taking out a 15-year mortgage agreement for $203,000 on the Michigan property, Cook purchased a condominium in Atlanta and entered into a 30-year mortgage agreement for $540,000. According to Pulte, Biden's Fed governor allegedly listed both residences as her primary.

A CNN review of the mortgage documents found that both properties were indeed listed as Cook's principal residence.

Eviction

President Trump evidently took the allegations very seriously, noting in an Aug. 25 letter to Cook that he shared on Truth Social that "it is inconceivable that you were not aware of your first commitment when making the second. It is impossible that you intended to honor both."

"The Federal Reserve has tremendous responsibility for setting interest rates and regulating reserve and member banks," wrote Trump. "The American people must be able to have full confidence in the honesty of the members entrusted with setting policy and overseeing the Federal Reserve."

The president suggested that neither he nor the American people have confidence in Cook's integrity in light of her alleged "deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter."

RELATED: Sean Spicer tells Glenn Beck how Biden unwittingly helped Trump fire 'anyone he wants'

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Trump stated, "Pursuant to my authority under Article II of the Constitution of the United States and the Federal Reserve Act of 1912, as amended, you are hereby removed from your position on the Board of the Governors of the Federal Reserve, effective immediately."

In response to the firing — reportedly the first time a president has canned or attempted to can a sitting Federal Reserve governor — Pulte thanked Trump for his "commitment to stopping mortgage fraud and following the law."

Blaze News has reached out to the White House for comment.

The Federal Reserve declined to comment on the development.

Clinging to power

Echoing other presidential appointees who are now out of work, Cook suggested President Trump lacked the authority to give her the boot.

"President Trump purported to fire me 'for cause' when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will not resign. I will continue to carry out my duties to help the American economy as I have been doing since 2022," said Cook in a statement obtained by Politico.

The fired Fed governor's attorney Abbe Lowell — who has also served as an attorney for pardoned felon Hunter Biden and New York Attorney General Letitia James — stated, "President Trump has taken to social media to once again ‘fire by tweet’ and once again his reflex to bully is flawed and his demands lack any proper process, basis or legal authority," adding that "we will take whatever actions are needed to prevent his attempted illegal action."

The law firm Lex Politica indicated days ahead of Trump's announcement that "President Trump clearly has authority to remove Governor Cook 'for cause,' assuming the allegations of mortgage fraud or lying on federal ethics forms are confirmed."

The Federal Reserve Act states that each member of the Fed's Board of Governors "shall hold office for a term of fourteen years from the expiration of the term of his predecessor, unless sooner removed for cause by the President."

The firm noted further that while the DOJ's investigation of Cook's alleged conduct and any charges it might bring against her "further support removal for cause ... we do not believe that an indictment is necessary before the President may remove Governor Cook 'for cause' under the Federal Reserve Act."

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Mike Waltz reportedly on his way out as national security adviser after inviting liberal reporter to sensitive war chat



Mike Waltz won his re-election bid in November to represent Florida's 6th congressional district. The decorated Green Beret decided, however, to give up his seat and corresponding job security to serve as President Donald Trump's national security adviser. He might come to regret that decision sooner rather than later.

Three sources informed journalist Mark Halperin that Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, are expected to step down as early as Thursday afternoon. Multiple sources subsequently confirmed the departures to CBS News and other legacy media outfits. Sources alternatively told Politico that Trump is planning to kick Waltz to the curb, but that the decision is not final.

There has been significant uncertainty about Waltz's future in the administration since March, when he included an anti-Trump polemicist in a private high-level group chat on Signal where senior administration officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Vice President JD Vance, discussed attacks on Iran-backed Houthi terrorists.

While Waltz insinuated in an interview that Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of the Atlantic, may have infiltrated the group chat by unseemly means or with an insider's help, he ultimately took "full responsibility" for the blunder.

Trump, apparently unwilling to let Democrats and liberal personalities claim a scalp, signaled his continued support for Waltz, telling reporters that "it was very unfair the way they attacked Michael" and that "nobody gives a damn" about the Atlantic.

Despite Trump's supportive messaging on the issue, unnamed White House officials told Politico in the immediate aftermath of the Atlantic's report on the contents of the private Signal chat that there is presently internal debate over whether to kick Waltz to the curb, claiming the general consensus is that "Mike Waltz is a f**king idiot."

'Trump certainly wasn't pleased with this.'

One official who spoke to Politico on the condition of anonymity said some administration staffers are "saying he's never going to survive or shouldn't survive."

"It was reckless not to check who was on the thread. It was reckless to be having that conversation on Signal. You can't have recklessness as the national security adviser," said the unnamed official.

A senior White House official told Axios in late March that "Trump certainly wasn't pleased with this," but added "all this talk you see about Waltz not lasting is just way premature. There's a Washington feeding frenzy. And we all know that you don't give the mob what it wants."

One source familiar with the situation told CBS News that Trump thinks enough time has passed since the Signal incident that Waltz and Wong's ousters can be spun as part of a reorganization.

After the removal of Gen. Timothy Haugh as the head of both the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, Trump underscored that where he's concerned, terminations are inevitable and routine: "Always we're letting go of people, people that we don't like or people that we don't think can do the job, or people that may have loyalties to somebody else. You'll always have that."

When asked for comment, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Politico, "We are not going to respond to reporting from anonymous sources."

CNN noted that while Waltz boarded Marine One with the president on Tuesday, he subsequently remained behind while his colleagues boarded Air Force One 10 minutes later — a move some aides figured as possibly significant.

One administration official told CNN that while there have been discussions to find Waltz a "soft landing spot," that recently ceased to be a priority, noting, "President Trump lost confidence in him a while ago."

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Tennessee Valley Authority gets a Trump-style reckoning



President Donald Trump has made the Tennessee Valley Authority a key front in his America First energy agenda. With the authority to appoint and remove TVA directors, Trump hasn’t hesitated to fire those who promote globalist “green” schemes that ignore the needs of the region’s residents.

This month, Trump ousted two Biden-appointed directors, including the board’s chairman. Their offense: trying to turn the TVA into a vehicle for the radical left’s anti-carbon agenda.

The future of reliable energy across the Tennessee Valley — and much of the South — still hangs in the balance.

Trump took similar action during his first term, firing several directors, including a previous chairman, after they approved outsourcing 146 American tech jobs to foreign workers on H-1B visas.

These firings are critical to ensuring that the Tennessee Valley Authority continues to produce abundant and reliable energy for the seven states it serves.

A call for reform

Last month, Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) published a joint letter voicing their concerns about the agency’s distracted leadership. They stressed the need for the energy provider to expand nuclear projects, especially small modular reactors, which utilize existing fission technology on a smaller, more deployable scale than the massive projects of decades past.

As to the incapable leadership of the existing Tennessee Valley Authority board, the senators wrote:

As it stands now, TVA and its leadership can’t carry the weight of this moment. The presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed TVA Board of Directors lacks the talent, experience, and gravitas to meet a challenge that clearly requires visionary industrial leaders. The group looks more like a collection of political operatives than visionary industrial leaders. The current TVA board focused on the diversity of its executives ahead of job creation for hungry workers in the region it is supposed to serve.

Shortly thereafter, Trump fired two of the agency’s six current directors.

A critical purge

Trump fired Michelle Moore on March 27, followed by TVA board Chairman Joe Ritch on April 1. Both were Biden-appointed green energy enthusiasts bent on turning the Tennessee Valley Authority into a utopian solar-and-battery experiment.

Had they succeeded, the consequences for the region’s energy reliability would have been disastrous.

Moore founded and runs Groundswell, a “sustainable energy” company whose mission statement boasts a “people-centric approach to developing community solar projects.” I’m not sure what that means — but I know I’d rather depend on coal, natural gas, or nuclear power than on some feel-good solar scheme when temperatures plunge below freezing.

Ritch, originally appointed to the TVA board by President Obama, returned under Biden’s nomination to serve as chairman. In his Senate confirmation statement, Ritch promoted transitioning the agency away from its current mix of coal, nuclear, hydro, and gas toward unreliable green alternatives — convinced, somehow, that it would help the environment and boost the economy.

A historic blunder

This utopian obsession with “sustainable energy” isn’t just naïve — it’s deadly. In December 2023, a hard freeze struck the Tennessee Valley Authority’s service area. The cold snap wasn’t historically extreme, but the consequences were.

For the first time in TVA history, the agency failed to produce enough electricity to meet demand. Rolling blackouts swept the region. Why? Because the TVA lacked enough baseline reliable energy. On those near-zero nights, solar energy produced exactly zero kilowatts.

That’s the future TVA customers would face under the fantasy energy plans pushed by climate zealots like Michelle Moore and Joe Ritch: blackouts in the dead of winter and no backup.

TVA leadership has failed in other ways too — most notably by outsourcing American jobs. In 2020, CEO Jeff Lyash tried to replace over 100 U.S. tech workers with foreign nationals on H-1B visas. While gutting working-class jobs, Lyash collected nearly $8 million a year, making him the highest-paid federal employee. One longtime worker said employees were expected to train their foreign replacements before being shown the door.

Trump responded immediately. While he couldn’t fire Lyash, he could — and did — remove board members who refused to act. When the board wouldn’t fire Lyash or cut his pay, Trump fired them instead.

Soon after, Lyash ended the outsourcing plan. Following Trump’s 2024 election win, Lyash saw the writing on the wall and resigned.

Protections are still needed

The Tennessee Valley Authority remains vital to the economic strength of the upper South. Trump’s removal of Obama-Biden-era appointees has played a key role in preserving the agency’s reliability and focus. But the threat isn’t gone.

The TVA’s service states — especially Tennessee — face a serious vulnerability: Any future Democrat president could again install green energy ideologues, fire current directors, and impose Green New Deal policies. The result? An energy-starved Tennessee Valley plagued by blackouts and foolish political experiments.

Trump’s stand against the radicalization of TVA energy policy deserves recognition. His pushback has protected millions of residents from rolling blackouts and economic self-sabotage. But the fight isn’t finished.

The future of reliable energy across the Tennessee Valley — and much of the South — still hangs in the balance. The region cannot afford to treat Trump’s changes as a lasting victory.

Prominent high school girls' basketball coach — an 81-year-old male — fired after yanking star player's ponytail



A prominent New York state high school girls' basketball coach has been fired after he was caught on a now-viral video yanking a star player's ponytail following a state championship game loss Friday night.

You can view a WRGB-TV video report here about the incident. It includes a clip of Northville High School coach Jim Zullo, 81, approaching senior Hailey Monroe from behind and pulling her ponytail as players lined up for an awards ceremony after a 43-37 loss to LaFargeville High School, the Daily Gazette reported.

The other storyline amid the scandalous incident centers on Monroe’s teammate Ahmya Tompkins, who is seen on the video getting between Zullo and Monroe and appearing to tell Zullo 'no.'

The paper — citing sources familiar with the situation — also said Monroe's family on Sunday filed a formal complaint against Zullo, who is a state Basketball Hall of Fame member and has coached since 1970.

Zullo on Friday night alleged to a WTEN-TV sports director that Monroe directed an expletive toward him, the Daily Gazette said, but the coach was apologetic soon after.

“I deeply regret my behavior following the loss to LaFargeville Friday night in the Class D state championship game. I want to offer my sincerest apologies to Hailey and her family, our team, the good folks at Northville Central Schools and our community. As a coach, under no circumstance is it acceptable to put my hands on a player, and I am truly sorry. I wish I could have those moments back," Zullo said in a statement, the paper reported.

The Daily Gazette said neither the Rensselaer County District Attorney's office nor public safety of Hudson Valley Community College in Troy — where the game was played — have formally announced charges against Zullo. The paper added neither agency immediately responded to a request for comment.

Monroe's family declined comment Sunday regarding the situation, the Daily Gazette reported.

However, Northville Central Schools Superintendent Sarah Chauncey quickly responded to the incident following Friday night’s game after the clip of Zullo's ponytail pull circulated on social media, the paper said. Chauncey didn't specifically name Zullo but condemned the coach’s actions in a community letter and said he no longer would serve as a coach for the district, the Daily Gazette added.

Teammate to the rescue

The other storyline amid the scandalous incident centers on Monroe’s teammate Ahmya Tompkins, who is seen on the video getting between Zullo and Monroe and appearing to tell Zullo "no."

In addition, when a furious Zullo begins getting in Tompkins' face and pointing a finger at her, Tompkins doesn't back down and points right back at him.

Another twist is that Zullo is Tompkins' great uncle, the Daily Gazette said.

Zullo's high school coaching career included a Class A state title in 1987 with the Shenendehowa boys' team, the paper noted, adding that his career record is 573-249. His two seasons with Northville were the only ones of his career leading a girls’ team, the Daily Gazette added.

The paper said Monroe moved to Northville from Baltimore during her eighth-grade year, played on the high school varsity team for four seasons, finished her career with 1,982 points — the scoring record for both the boys’ and girls’ programs, the paper said.

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Trump canned several inspectors general. Now they're suing for the opportunity to be fired again.



President Donald Trump fired the inspectors general from at least 17 federal agencies in his first week in office, citing changing priorities. Trump canned another inspector general, Paul Martin of the U.S. Agency for International Development, on Tuesday.

Some of the inspectors general did not respond well to Trump's decision to exercise his lawful authority and engage in a house-cleaning greatly resembling that undertaken by President Ronald Reagan following his inauguration in 1981. Former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Phyllis Fong, for instance, refused to leave and had to be escorted out of her office by security agents.

Fong and seven other former inspectors general, five of whom were nominated by former Presidents Joe Biden or Barack Obama, are now suing to undo Trump's house-cleaning and to snatch their jobs back.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and obtained by CNN, claims that Trump's termination of the former inspectors general for the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor, State, and Veterans Affairs, and the Small Business Administration was "unlawful and unjustified."

'Trump probably acted lawfully, I think, because the notice requirement is probably unconstitutional.'

The complaint specifically alleges that Trump failed to notify both houses of Congress 30 days before the removal and to provide a substantive, case-specific rationale for the terminations — both requirements added to the Inspector General Act in 2022, apparently in response to Trump's first-term IG firings.

In other words, Fong and her compatriots want to haunt the offices of their successors, "carry[ing] out their official duties," until Trump fires them again.

While the plaintiffs and their Democratic champions believe the firings were unlawful and "therefore a nullity," Harvard Law School professor Jack Goldsmith recently noted the "removals are probably lawful."

"Trump probably acted lawfully, I think, because the notice requirement is probably unconstitutional," wrote Goldsmith.

"The Trump administration has a pretty strong argument that the notice provision is unconstitutional," continued Goldsmith. "The Court has recognized the president's 'unrestricted removal power' over executive branch officials, subject to only 'two exceptions.' The potentially relevant exception here comes from the shriveled and maybe-dead precedent of Morrison v. Olson (1988)."

Goldsmith suggested that should this issue make it to the Supreme Court, the high court "will not look kindly on Congress' requirement of a 'substantive rationale' and notice for firing IGs."

When asked last month about the terminations, President Donald Trump told reporters, "We'll put people in there that will be very good."

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LAFD Terminated Firefighter For Refusing Covid Vaccine Just Months Before Deadly Wildfires

The Los Angeles Fire Department fired a firefighter for refusing the Covid vaccine after the mandate ended, even though he had an exemption.