Aamer Madhani

USA TODAY

A misdemeanor assault charge was filed Monday against a University of Missouri assistant professor who received nationwide attention when she called for "some muscle" to help remove a student journalist from a campus protest in November.

Melissa Click, who works in Missouri's communication department, faces a Class C misdemeanor simple assault charge for the incident, in which she was filmed having physical contact and berating a student journalist, according to the office of Columbia, Mo., prosecutor Steve Richey. The student was trying to conduct interviews at a site set up on the university's quad by students protesting the treatment of African Americans by administrators.

A video of the confrontation, which was taken by student journalist Mark Schierbecker and went viral on the Internet, begins with a group of protesters yelling and pushing another student journalist, Tim Tai, who was trying to photograph the campsite. At the end of the video, Schierbecker approaches Click, who calls for "some muscle" to remove him from the protest area. She then appears to grab at Schierbecker's camera.

Schierbecker filed a simple assault complaint with the campus police department days after the incident.

Richey's office confirmed that charge has been filed but declined further comment. If convicted, Click could face up to a $300 fine and 15 days in jail.

The incident occurred as the campus had been embroiled in weeks of protests over school administrators' handling of a series of a racially charged incidents on campus. Shortly before the confrontation, the state's university system president, Tim Wolfe, and Missouri chancellor R. Bowen Loft announced their resignations. Click was at the campsite to show her support for the student protesters.

Under fire, Click resigned her courtesy appointment with the journalism school the day after the incident but remains an assistant professor in the university's Department of Communication.

Earlier this month, more than 100 Missouri Republican lawmakers signed on to letters calling for the firing of Click and another staff member captured in the video berating student journalists.

GOP lawmakers call for firing of Mizzou professor who called for 'muscle'

"The fact that, as a professor teaching in the communication department and school of journalism, she displayed such a complete disregard for the First Amendment rights of reporters should be enough to question her competency and aptitude for her job," the lawmakers wrote. "It should be evident that these actions are inappropriate, illegal and unacceptable for a faculty member of the University of Missouri."

The lawmakers also attacked Click's research. According to a university biography, Click's research project delves into 50 Shades of Grey readers and the impact of social media in fans' relationship with Lady Gaga.

State Rep. Caleb Jones , who led the GOP petition calling for Click's ouster, praised Richey for filing the charge against the professor.

"While the University of Missouri seems to have no accountability for their professors and their actions, the Missouri criminal justice system does," Jones said. "I hope that justice gets served to the fullest extent of the law. "

The university had repeatedly declined to comment on Click's actions following the November incident.

But on Monday, after the charge was announced, interim chancellor Hank Foley broke the university's silence on the matter.

Foley told reporters that Click will not be working in the classroom for the rest of this week. He added that he's also asked the provost and Arts & Science dean to determine if Click should be kept out of the classroom beyond that to avoid an awkward situation for her and her students

Foley also pushed back against GOP lawmakers calling for Click's firing, saying the university would not act "capriciously." Click is in the midst of the year-long process for applying for tenure at the university, in which the administration and faculty weigh whether to offer a scholar more permanent employment at the institution.

The chancellor said on Monday that the university plans on letting the tenure process unfold for Click and warned about returning to the "deep, dark past" at colleges and universities.

"Curators and trustees were quite arbitrary and if they didn't like a professor or a professor's work they could turn on them and actually have them removed from their jobs," Foley said of prior practice. He added, "When we deviate from such time-honored traditions at the university, as some have called for, we tend to make mistakes, and it often leads to turmoil."

Foley declined to comment on whether he thought the assault charge was appropriate.

"I'm a chemist," Foley said. "I know a lot about the laws of nature, but I have no comment on that matter."

More than 100 of Click's colleagues expressed support for her in a letter, noting that she has expressed remorse for her action and questioned the motives of the lawmakers pushing for her ouster.

"We believe that Click has been wronged in the media by those who have attacked her personally and have called for her dismissal," the faculty members wrote in the letter. "We affirm our support of her as a colleague, a teacher, and a scholar, and we call upon the University to defend her First Amendment rights of protest and her freedom to act as a private citizen."

Click did not respond to requests for comment on the charge.

Follow USA TODAY correspondent Aamer Madhani on Twitter: @AamerISmad