Prof says he'll 'stomp' and 'beat' students 'within an inch of your life,' denies making a threat

According to President Neeli Bendapudi, the University of Louisville had received at least 75 faculty complaints regarding Jones' statements.

Ricky Jones sent the university a letter where in which he wrote, "I wish to unequivocally state that I have threatened no one."

University of Louisville professor and chair of the Department of Pan African Studies, Ricky Jones, responded to the school’s investigation of his threatening comments over Twitter.

Earlier in the year, a student at the university passed out a pamphlet from Living Waters Publications, a Christian group, in an LGBT studies class. Inside of it was written, “Perhaps you believe you are gay, or maybe you are sympathetic toward homosexuality and you think that what people do sexually is their own business. Whatever the case, I want to convince you that you are sitting in a car on a railroad track with a train coming, and you don’t know it.”

Following the incident, Jones said on “The Ricky Jones Show,”  his podcast, “come to one of my classes with that. I will drag your (behind) into my class, me and my 50-some-odd students will stomp you, beat you within an inch of your life, then drag you out of the room and deny that we did it.”

Comments begin around the 12:45 mark:

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Following these comments, Interim Dean David Owen sent Jones a letter notifying him that his comments were in violation of the school’s Code of Conduct.

“While you may believe that your threats were rhetorical and should not be taken seriously, others clearly saw them as sincere and threatening,” the letter stated.

Jones then sent Owen a letter, claiming that he was “honestly regretful.” He stated that “there may be a cultural rhetorical divide here that people who often use the now popular ‘diversity and inclusion’ buzzwords may not comprehend or respect.”

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“I am not sure you are aware of this, but it is important to note that I was never informed by any university administrator or the University Integrity and Compliance Office that I was under investigation at all as a result of any complaint, anonymous or otherwise,” Jones wrote in the letter.

In months following the investigation, Jones tweeted that the university still has not responded to his attorney requesting “documentation or that they remove the unfounded letter of reprimand from my file.”

He continued to write in a Twitter thread that the university “is bleeding black faculty and staff.” Jones claimed that he was not threatening anyone, and “these are sham allegations, sham charges and a sham investigation.”

The University of Louisville did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication. 

Jones did not respond to Campus Reform in time for publication. 

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @KestecherLacey