‘YOU WANT SOME TOO?’: COLORADO PROFESSOR, MENTOR, INVESTIGATED FOR ASSAULTING STUDENT PROTESTERS IN CLASS, VIDEO SHOWS
POLICE AT COLORADO UNIVERSITY AT BOULDER ARE INVESTIGATING
Apr. 4, 2025 Updated: 3:30 PM
A Colorado University professor who teaches weapons production and a class mentor are under investigation for allegedly assaulting pro-Palestinian student protesters.
"The CU Boulder Police Department is investigating an incident that occurred Wednesday, April 2, where a classroom was disrupted by unidentified individuals, one or more of whom were removed from the classroom after being told to leave repeatedly by the instructor," the university said in a news release on Thursday.
The university also said "A second individual who appears to be removing individuals from the class in a video of the incident was not an employee or a student."
On Friday, a spokesperson for the university, Nicole Mueksch, identified the man as “a mentor for the class” but declined to name him.
The alleged attack was captured on video published by the university's chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.
"Two students were violently assaulted by a CU Boulder professor for interrupting a Designing for Defense class," the group said in a social media post.
The group added the course "directly collaborates with the U.S. military to develop weapons and surveillance tools while the Israeli regime carries out a U.S.-funded genocide in Gaza."
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THE LONG-RUNNING WAR BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS
Students identified the professor as Andy Meyer. A 2023 course syllabus published on the university's website and Meyer's LinkedIn profile confirm he is a "Designing for Defense Instructor at CU Boulder."
An email and telephone call to Meyer seeking comment were not returned.
The video captures Meyer and the class mentor dragging one student toward the door to the classroom. It also captures the mentor alone grabbing a second keffiyeh-clad student by the keffiyeh while physically ejecting him from the classroom.
Outside in the hallway, the man confronts another student.
“You want some too,” the man threatens.
The video ends with the mentor reaching for the camera, in an apparently successful attempt to block recording.
The man was identified by students as Rex Laceby.
Laceby returned The Free Lance’s telephone call Friday afternoon.
“It wasn’t me,” he said, before listing evidence he said would prove he was elsewhere at the time of the alleged classroom assault.
“I was a Marine for 21 years,” the retired Leatherneck added. “I fought to defend the First Amendment.”
Mueksch, the unversity’s spokesperson, confirmed Laceby wasn’t the second man: “the university can confirm the second individual was not a Rex Laceby.”
The “incident remains under investigation by CUPD and the university,” she added.
The school’s website says Free Speech is “central to CU Boulder’s academic mission.”
But Pres. Donald J. Trump’s Department of Homeland Security revoked the F-1 student visas of 10 Colorado University students last week, including four at Boulder, the Denver Post reported.
The university confirmed the revocations, but said in a news release it would “not be releasing specific student names or details about any specific circumstances when and if they are known due to federal laws that protect the privacy rights of students and their personal and educational data unless court ordered.”
A university student and an employee who protested for Palestine sued the state-run school for allegedly violating their First Amendment rights back in January, court records show. The suit remains pending.
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