California college trustee apologizes after 'threatening' remarks about faculty who oppose equity initiatives

A California college trustee board member apologized after being confronted over his provocative comments directed towards faculty who were against the school district's diversity, equity and inclusion measures.

At the Kern Community College District's Board of Trustees meeting on December 13, several speakers attacked professors who started a free speech group at the Bakersfield College campus called the Renegade Institute for Liberty. 

Community members, faculty and students accused the group of spreading "hate speech" on campus, threatening violence against Black students and attacking racial affinity groups.

Empathizing with the speakers' grievances, vice president of the board John Corkins said he believed this group was an "abusive" and "disrespectful" minority and needed to be "culled," and taken "to the slaughterhouse."

"They're in that 5 percent that we have to continue to cull. Got them in my livestock operation and that’s why we put a rope on some of them and take them to the slaughterhouse. That’s a fact of life with human nature and so forth, I don’t know how to say it any clearer," he said.

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Some board members laughed or smiled at the trustee's comments in the video.

Corkins apologized after being confronted by the College Fix but defended the sentiment behind his comments.

"I apologize to anyone who felt threatened or was offended. My intent was to emphasize that the individuals who spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting have my full support," he said in a statement.

Mr. Corkins and the board of trustees did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

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The Renegade Institute for Liberty describes itself as "a coalition of Bakersfield College faculty dedicated to the free speech, open inquiry, critical thinking to advance American ideals within the broader Western tradition of meritocracy, individual agency, civic virtue, liberty of conscience and free markets."

At the trustees meeting, faculty, students and community members accused the group of racism and some called for faculty involved to be fired.

Professor Dr. Paula Parks, an English professor, said the institute spread "lies and misinformation designed to create a hateful, toxic, unsafe environment." She read statements from her students describing microaggressions they faced such as "openly racist" "looks of disgust" from professors within the group.

Another community speaker, a clinical psychologist, urged the board to terminate the teachers.

"I think you should demand that those teachers not teach or remove them from your rosters because quite frankly the students don’t feel comfortable take their classes," he said.

Leaders of the Renegade Institute and tenured history professors Erin Miller and Matthew Garrett sued the community college school district in 2021, after they said the school district violated their First Amendment rights. 

The lawsuit said the professors were threatened with termination after criticizing the use of school funds to push a "politically biased" "social justice agenda," during a 2019 presentation on censorship.

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The two history professors' attorney, Arthur Willner, called the statements made during this meeting about his clients "demonstrably false." 

"At the December 13 public meeting, several individuals falsely accused Dr. Garrett by name, and Professor Miller by implication, of engaging in racism and hate speech at an earlier diversity meeting on campus. Not surprisingly, none of these individuals offered any actual evidence in support of these demonstrably false claims," he said to Fox News Digital.

The attorney also slammed the trustee's comments comparing the professors to livestock as "outrageous," "threatening and disgusting."

"It is outrageous that a Trustee (or anyone representing the District) would refer to members of the college community in these terms. After Corkins made these threatening and disgusting comments, his fellow Trustee, Nan Gomez-Heitzeberg, actually laughed as if the remarks were somehow funny.  The other Trustees and Chancellor Sonya Christian seated nearby remained shamelessly silent and indifferent.  None of them either chastised Corkins or even suggested that his remarks were, to say the least, inappropriate," he added. 

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Willner decried the "problem of censorship" of faculty who disagreed with the "prevailing political orthodoxy on campus."

Bakersfield College and the District are "bound by the First Amendment," he said, but have spent the past two years "retaliating against" the history professors for exercising free speech.

"Instead of celebrating and teaching its students the value of viewpoint diversity, KCCD’s administration at the highest levels have for the past two years repeatedly retaliating against Professors Garrett and Miller over nothing more than the expression of their protected speech.  Trustee Corkins’ ugly, unprofessional, and threatening comments were only the latest example of this violation of their First Amendment rights and academic freedom," he said to Fox News Digital.