By now you almost assuredly know about Marcus Venable, the LSU graduate student whose reaction to the Louisiana legislature overturning Gov. John Bel Edwards’ veto of HB 648, the bill banning pediatric sex-change surgeries and the prescription of sterilizing “puberty-blocker” drugs to children, was less than complimentary.

Here is the not-safe-for-work voice mail that Venable left on the phone of state senator “Big Mike” Fesi (R-Houma)…

That obviously is not what qualifies as reasoned political debate. It plays a little more like a death threat, not just where Venable talks about rejoicing at Fesi’s obituary but more particularly the part in which Venable talks about “when we put you in the ground.”

And it turns out that death threats to state legislators, even the very veiled kind, aren’t all that conducive to employment at the state’s flagship public university. Venable, who was identified as the culprit by law enforcement from the phone number on Fesi’s caller ID (it appears he called Fesi from his office phone at LSU, in a case of stupidity one would think incompatible with higher education), was teaching sociology classes as part of his grad-student repertoire, but that’s now in the past.

An LSU graduate student will no longer be allowed to teach at the university, after allegedly leaving a profanity laced voicemail to a Louisiana State Senator for his vote to override the governor’s veto on House Bill 648.

The university has identified the graduate student to WAFB as Marcus Venable.

The voicemail was left on Republican State Senator Mike Fesi’s voicemail, after he voted yes on a bill Tuesday, July 18, which prohibits certain procedures to alter the sex of a minor child.

“You know who the real experts are, it’s the ones that had this procedure done and are now in their mid-twenties, and late twenties, and trying to say that they hate their parents for letting this happen to them,” said Senator Fesi (R), District 20, on Tuesday at the Capitol.

…

In a statement to WAFB, LSU officials said, “As a university, we foster open and respectful dialogue. Like everyone, graduate students with teaching assignments have the right to express their opinions, but this profanity-filled, threatening call crossed the line. This does not exhibit the character we expect of someone given the privilege of teaching as part of their graduate assistantship. The student will be allowed to continue their studies but will not be extended the opportunity to teach in the future.”

This is interesting stuff, and perhaps it signals LSU’s administration under current school president Bill Tate has made some progress in reining in some of the crazies in the faculty. If you’ll remember, a couple of years ago there was a controversy over insulting public remarks made by journalism professor and former Democrat political flack Bob Mann about an attorney working in the Attorney General’s office who addressed the LSU Faculty Senate with the legal opinion that masking and vaccination for COVID-19 could not be made mandatory by the university. When Attorney General Jeff Landry took that up with Tate and pointed out that Mann’s attack on the attorney was a fairly clear violation of the faculty code of conduct, Tate rebuffed Landry, citing “academic freedom.”

Failing to address Mann’s abuses probably led to the one in question. But the fact Venable is only essentially a teaching assistant rather than a full professor, not to mention the fact that Landry is the odds-on favorite to be governor of Louisiana next year and will be watching issues like these, added to the fact that Venable’s misbehavior rises above the level of Mann calling a staff attorney for Landry a “flunky,” you have a different result.

And if nothing else, it’s simply good business for LSU to rein in the crazies when they go after state legislators. There is already a growing sentiment in the Legislature that budgetary and other levers ought to be pulled in order to stop LSU from turning into a woke indoctrination factory, something which is well along the way to becoming the case, and this is a bright-line example of how important that project ought to be.