Nick Hytrek

SIOUX FALLS — A University of South Dakota art professor is seeking an injunction to stop the South Dakota Board of Regents from firing him for a social media post he made in the wake of conservative political commentator Charlie Kirk’s fatal shooting.

Phillip Michael Hook says in the complaint the Board of Regents and USD administrators have deprived him of his First Amendment rights and retaliated against him for exercising those rights on a Facebook post he made after Kirk was shot and killed Sept. 10 during an event on a Utah college campus.

Two days later, Hook, a tenured professor who has been at USD since 2006, was placed on administrative leave after the Board of Regents notified him of the intent to terminate his contract. A personal conference with Hook is schedule

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