We learned last week that just before Bryan Kohberger was arrested for the shocking murders of four University of Idaho students, he was also fired.
For those who don’t know, Kohberger didn’t go to school with victims Kaylee Goncalves, Maddie Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin — he was a grad student just across state lines at Washington State University. While working toward his PhD in criminology, he also got a job as a teaching assistant.
According to early reports from NewsNation last week, he lost that job at the end of the semester on December 19. Their sources explained that he had displayed a lack of professionalism with a professor and a “sexist attitude toward women.” Shocker that an alleged woman killer would be sexist, right? The source said he was “rude to women” and that he graded their papers more harshly — totally a fireable offense, obviously, but as it turns out it was even worse!
The New York Times did some digging of their own over the weekend and they found sources from campus that told them female students had reported Kohberger made them “uncomfortable.” So was it more than rudeness? Did he give them sketchy serial killer vibes?
Two separate sources told the Times there was an incident where a girl claimed he had followed her to her car! Scary enough under normal circumstances — absolutely chilling in retrospect. We mean, he was allegedly following around the Idaho victims, too…
Ultimately, after being put on an “improvement plan” but not improving, Kohberger was dropped from his position for failure to meet “norms of professional behavior.” On paper it wasn’t specifically for being sexist — or for creeping women the eff out. Even though the female students’ reports were apparently brought up in the end-of-year meeting, where the decision to let him go was made, the investigation into those reports found no wrongdoing. So if he hadn’t been arrested, sure, there would have been a black mark on his resumé maybe — for unprofessionalism — but would anyone have known to look out for the scariest of behaviors?
WSU declined to comment publicly on his work as a TA or his firing. But maybe more will come out as the trial approaches?
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