KU won’t discipline employee who said Kirk ‘better in the ground as worm food’
The University of Kansas says it will not discipline or fire an employee who was put on blast after commenting that slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk is “better in the ground as worm food than up here preaching that murdered children are a necessary sacrifice for 2A rights.”
Screenshots of the post, made by KU Student Access Center employee Brianna Lichtenauer Wasser, were shared to X by right-wing influencer Libs of TikTok on Friday. By Tuesday, the post had racked up more than 615,000 views.
“The university is aware of the post, which an employee made on a personal social media account using a personal computer on personal time,” KU spokesperson Erinn Barcomb-Peterson said in an email statement.
“The post was made not in their capacity as a KU employee, but rather as a private citizen — meaning there is no violation of any university policy,” Barcomb-Peterson said.
Wasser works as an accessible print coordinator, a position dedicated to ensuring that physical and digital documents are accessible to people with disabilities. She did not respond to requests for comment on Monday or Tuesday.
Kirk, 31, was gunned down last Wednesday while speaking outdoors on the campus of Utah Valley University. A 22-year-old suspect, Tyler Robinson of Utah, is in custody.
Wasser’s post appears to reference remarks Kirk made at a 2023 Turning Point USA event, where he said the Second Amendment is necessary for defending against a “tyrannical government” and suggested that the benefits of gun ownership outweigh the risks of gun violence.
“I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” Kirk said at the time.
Backlash over Charlie Kirk posts
In the days since the jarring attack, some conservative influencers have joined forces to demand the firing of public- and private-sector employees over comments that they deem to be flippant or insensitive.
Katie Allen, a Manhattan-Ogden school board member who apologized after posting that Kirk’s killing was “well-deserved,” is no longer employed as a research analyst at the Kansas State Department of Education, the agency confirmed.
One of the loudest voices calling for Allen’s ouster was Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican and gubernatorial hopeful.
In an X post Monday evening, Masterson shared the screenshot of Wasser’s comment and her since-deleted LinkedIn page. He urged his followers to call KU and demand that Wasser’s employment be terminated.
“Her statement is beyond unacceptable and a clear violation of our state’s social media policy for university employees,” Masterson said.
“The hateful comments spewed by numerous individuals involved in our education system are an indictment of a disturbing and extreme ideology that has taken over our campuses and classrooms,” he continued.
Another GOP candidate for governor, Johnson County businessman Philip Sarnecki, posted an image of a letter he sent to KU Chancellor Douglas A. Girod on Tuesday asking why Wasser is still employed.
“You owe Kansas answers for this horrific celebration of a political assassination,” Sarnecki wrote in the letter to Girod.
This story was originally published September 16, 2025 at 12:36 PM with the headline "KU won’t discipline employee who said Kirk ‘better in the ground as worm food’."
