Month: September 2025

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Lincoln University student died Tuesday night at a residence hall on campus.

Jefferson City police dispatch records show first responders were called to 825 Chestnut St. at 5 p.m. The Cole County Sheriff’s Office responded and Sheriff John Wheeler told ABC 17 News that foul play is not suspected.

A cause of death was not revealed on Wednesday. The name of the student was not revealed.

“Our Lincoln University community is saddened by the loss of one of our students. At this time, out of respect of privacy, we will not be sharing further details. We do offer our condolences to their family, friends, and all who knew them,” the university said in a statement.

The university shared that counseling services are available to students through TeleHelp and the Thompkins Health Center. Resources are also available to employees through the Strive Employee Life and Family program.

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Mitchell Kaminski

HALLSVILLE, Mo. (KMIZ) 

The Hallsville Board of Education held a pair of closed sessions before and after its 6 p.m. public meeting to discuss “personnel matters” after two teachers were placed on paid administrative leave following backlash over social media posts about Charlie Kirk.

Kirk, a conservative activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was killed in a shooting on Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University. He was 31.

Following his death, social media accounts matching the names of school district employees Anthony Plogger and Kayla Lewis were seen sharing posts from a social media page called “So Informed” that read:

“Charlie Kirk was a racist, xenophobic, transphobic, islamophobic, sexist, white nationalist mouthpiece who made millions inciting hatred in this country.

Whether it was his genocide denial, his transphobic tirades, his oushing for mass deportations, or his normalizing Trumpism for years, the man stood for nothing but hat.

I extend absolutely no empathy for people like that.

In this situation, my empathy is reserved for his children. May they grow up to live in a country that is the total opposite of everything their father envisioned.

May all of our children grow up to live in a country that values their lives enough to take gun violence seriously and reject any person who would try to justify senseless gun-related deaths – especially the deaths of children.”

Screenshots of the posts were shared around social media by public pages and community members. The school district wrote in its letter that the employees had “voluntarily removed the posts.” The screenshots do not show the employees giving additional comments.

Eleven people spoke at Wednesday’s Board of Education about the two employees, with only three voicing support. Bekki Brewer was one of the three who offered support for the suspended employees. 

“As you know, those two individuals have not violated any of our school policies. Both shared posts on their own time, on their private Facebook accounts,” Brewer said. “You, as the school district, have records that show that those teachers have been effectively performing their roles for years.”

The two others who spoke in support of the teachers argued that firing the teachers would be “giving in to the tantrums of bullies” and that other school employees had made similar private posts that were not leaked to the public. 

State Rep. John Martin (R-Columbia) had previously commented about the situation on his social media page, demanding that the employees be fired. He was one of eight people who believed the employees should face discipline. 

“I’m not here to speak against their First Amendment rights. They have those rights. But they do have consequences for their words,” Martin told the board during the meeting. 

Others who spoke said that the post set a “bad example for students”, “incited more violence that we should be standing up against,” and the employees failed to “uphold the basic moral principles such as morale is wrong. 

Records obtained by ABC 17 News show that Plogger is a seventh-grade social studies teacher who was hired on June 7, 2021, but didn’t begin teaching full-time until Aug. 6, 2025. Lewis is a middle school counselor who has been working for the district since Aug. 12, 2020. However, the district would not confirm that Lewis and Plogger were the teachers placed on administrative leave. 

The school district wrote in a letter to parents earlier this week that two employees were put on paid leave, pending the outcome of a review.

“We want to clarify that social media posts made by employees of the school district in their personal capacities and outside of their school duties do not reflect the opinions of the District or the Board of Education, nor are they endorsed in any way by the District. As a public school district, we recognize that our role is to create a learning environment where all students feel safe and valued,” the letter says.

The district says that Superintendent Tyler Walker made the decision to release the statement, adding that Walker is working closely with the district attorney. 

Kirk considered himself a passionate supporter of free speech and a vocal critic of “cancel culture.”

In June, Kirk spoke at the Oxford Union debating society in London, where he criticized British laws after a woman was arrested for a social media post urging people to “set fire” to hotels housing migrants. Her post came in response to the July 2024 Southport attack, when the teenage son of migrant parents fatally stabbed several people.

“You should be allowed to say outrageous things,” Kirk told the crowd in London. “You should be allowed to say contrarian things. Free speech is a birthright that you gave us, and you guys decided not to codify it, and now it’s proof, it’s basically gone.” 

On May 2, 2024, Kirk also posted on social media: 

“Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment. Keep America free.”

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Marie Moyer

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

No one is in custody after several people fired a barrage of gunshots that hit homes and vehicles in a residential area just east of Columbia.

Boone County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Brian Leer said that at around 1:17 a.m. Tuesday, the department received several calls of shots fired from the area of Santa Barbara Drive off Route W. Two vehicles and several homes had damage from bullets, and several shell casings were collected, Leer said.

A home security video sent to ABC 17 News from a resident of the neighborhood shows at least three people shooting in the backyard of a home on E. Santa Barbara and running towards Roseta Avenue, where they continued to fire shots and were later picked up by a getaway car.

Several neighbors in the area reported being woken up by the shots. One neighbor told ABC 17 News that shootings have become common in the area in the past few years. ABC 17 News agreed to grant the person anonymity because of fear of retaliation for talking about violence in the neighborhood.

The neighbor added that it’s common for young adults and juveniles to walk around the neighborhood while armed and for retaliatory gun violence to happen between groups.

The same neighbor was also one of the owners of a truck that was damaged by gunfire. The bullets hit the truck’s windshield, back window, tire and engine.

“When they shot, they completely aired out our whole car, took out a few back windows of our neighbor’s house across the street, and I’m pretty sure a few bullet holes [in] the house that they were actually aiming at.”

As of Tuesday night, no suspects have been located or identified and no injuries were reported.

The Boone County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that there was no new information to share in the investigation.

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Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The former president of Mizzou Students For Justice in Palestine was charged with a misdemeanor on Tuesday in Boone County for accusations related to a March incident.

Isleen Atallah, of Columbia, was charged with fourth-degree assault. A criminal summons was issued for Atallah to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 6.

University lawyers said in court Tuesday that Atallah was trespassed from the university following the incident. The probable cause statement says a student spoke with Atallah on March 17 when she had a booth set up at Speaker’s Circle on campus.

The victim alleged that Atallah became “belligerent” with him and started repeatedly yelling that the victim was a racist, court documents say. The victim started walking away, but Atallah allegedly grabbed his backpack that he was wearing, pushed him in his chest and followed and recorded him while calling him names as he walked toward Ellis Library, which is near Speaker’s Circle.

Atallah admitted to police that she pushed the victim, grabbed his backpack and called him a racist, the statement says.

The student at the time did not want to press charges, but reached out to law enforcement to press charges on Aug. 20, court documents say.

Charges were filed the same day a hearing took place in Kansas City over the university’s decision to reject MSJP’s application to partake in the school’s annual homecoming parade.

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