An Oklahoma State University student says a campus official reprimanded him for honoring slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk because his hat risked making people feel “triggered.”
Josh Wilson, a junior who serves in the OSU Student Government Association, told Fox News he was summoned by an administrator after delivering a speech in tribute to the Turning Point USA founder on Sept. 10, the day Kirk was assassinated in Utah.
Wilson’s short speech praised Kirk’s commitment to free speech and civil dialogue.
Josh Wilson, an OSU junior and debate society president, says he was reprimanded and threatened with a “difficult” year by an OSU administrator after delivering a short student-government speech mourning Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. https://t.co/b0koqJZTz0
— OCPAthink (@OCPAthink) October 6, 2025
He called Kirk “a father, a husband, a devout Christian, and a shining light for so many.”
According to the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, Wilson also wore a Turning Point USA hat that Kirk had given him when he visited campus in April. The hat displayed “45” and “47,” a nod to President Donald Trump.
Wilson said his remarks weren’t political, and he did not mention Trump or any political candidate.
Students applauded, he told Fox News, and several reached out afterward to express their appreciation.
But the following week, Wilson said he was called into a meeting with Melisa Echols, OSU’s coordinator of student government programs.
Echols allegedly told him his hat violated nonpartisan rules and could upset people.
“As a person who doesn’t look like you and has not had the same lived experience as you, I have family who don’t look like you who are triggered, and I will be very candid with you, who are triggered by those hats and by that side,” Echols said, according to OCPA and an audio recording it obtained.
She added, “I would challenge you to ask others who don’t look like you” and “have open conversations with anyone that has a different lived experience.”
Wilson reminded Echols that, like many Oklahomans, he is of Native American heritage.
“I don’t like to pull that card,” he said, “but if you’re going to pull that card on me, I might as well.”
He stood by his right to free expression, telling Echols, “Any student in general should have the liberty and not show any fear of expressing their thoughts and ideas.”
Echols pushed back, telling him, “‘But’ cannot be the end of every statement. That’s not a learned lesson … Otherwise, this year is going to be difficult for you.”
Wilson called the remark “a veiled threat.”
OCPA said Echols did not respond to its request for comment. The school told Fox News that “the organization has no official policies to restrict partisan expression” and affirmed its commitment to protecting and facilitating free expression for all students.
That statement might sound comforting, but it doesn’t erase the fact that a taxpayer-funded employee used her position to lecture a student for quoting a murdered conservative while wearing a hat.
We should encourage young Americans to record every interaction with officials like Echols — people who are entrusted with shaping students on the public dime.
Universities like Oklahoma State have become toxic battlegrounds where “education” takes a back seat to indoctrination.
As to Echols’ comments, every human being has a different “lived experience.”
Wilson’s hat and his words reflected his, and he had every right to express them.
Any faculty member “triggered” by a hat should not be working in education at all.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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