EXCLUSIVE: Virginia Tech Professor Called Out for Comparing Charlie Kirk Vigil to KKK Rally
Fellow professor, a former CIA official, says comments put "target" on Kirk supporters.
A far-left history professor made deeply offensive comments equating a student-led vigil for Charlie Kirk at Virginia Tech with a Ku Klux Klan rally. These outrageous comments make any attendee a target. Now a former CIA official who serves as a geography instructor at Virginia Tech is demanding a public retraction and apology.
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), was assassinated on Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University. The event was held as part of Kirk's "American Comeback Tour," meant to continue his mission of outreach to colleges and high schools across the country. Kirk was 31, and leaves behind a widow and two children under 4.
Inflammatory Rhetoric Targets Conservatives
The Virginia Tech chapter of TPUSA along with the College Republicans hosted the evening vigil for Kirk two days after his assassination on the university's campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. About 200 people, mostly students, attended as did Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. Ken Stiles, a former CIA official, and instructor in the university's geography department, told Restoration News he became aware of the incendiary social media post when his local delegate called attention to it in a campaign ad. The post from Nicholas Copeland, an associate professor in Virginia Tech's history department, compared the vigil to a Klan rally on the professor's Nextdoor account. Copeland wrote: "I considered it my civic duty to let everyone know that a vigil for Kirk is the ideological equivalent of a Klan rally."
Restoration News could not find Copeland's Nextdoor account online. But Chris Obenshain, a Republican state delegate running for re-election, reproduced the offending post in the campaign email that Stiles cited. Copeland's current status at the university is uncertain as it appears Copeland has been scrubbed from the history department's website.
This is what a Virginia Tech professor thinks about those mourning Charlie Kirk.
— Delegate Chris Obenshain (@ObenshainChris) September 16, 2025
More than 200 people - mostly students - showed up on campus at Virginia Tech Friday night for a solemn vigil to honor the life, faith, and work of Charlie Kirk. This professor smears them all as… https://t.co/wXTqOHfjF0
"My understanding is that he is off campus, and I've been told by others that he is doing research in Guatemala," Stiles said. "He needs to make a public statement and recant what he said and say something about how he was mistaken, and this is wrong and that he should never have said it. That's the only way to take the target off me and the students. I'm concerned about the professor's acolytes and how they might act."
Stiles serves as an advisor to both the College Republicans and Turning Point USA. He told Restoration News he sees three options in play for the Virginia Tech administration. They could have Copeland permanently removed from campus, provide additional security during his classes, and allow him on campus to exercise his "right to carry" a firearm on campus. Stiles has already asked William "Mac" Babb, the university's police chief, about this third option, but Babb turned Stiles down.
"I was expecting him to turn me down and I understand it, but the university can still provide more security," Stiles said. "I have had a guard standing outside my classroom and patrolling the hallway. But I don't know how long that will last."
Stiles has sent correspondence to the chairman of his department, his dean, the university provost, other university officials and elected representatives in the Virginia General Assembly, spelling out his concerns about Copeland's offensive remarks. In an email message dated Sept. 18th Stiles addressed to his department's dean, chair, other university officials, and elected representatives in the General Assembly, Stiles wrote the following:
I fear for my safety on campus after the hate speech directed at me and many others by Prof. Nick Copeland. He designated me, every student member of the College Republicans and every student member of Turning Point on campus as Klu [sic] Klux Klan members. This put a target on our back. We've seen how hate speech can drive acolytes of the hater to violence against those being vilified…Such hate speech cannot be tolerated on campus. I am concerned for my safety and that of my students in my classes because of his statements. I am the faculty adviser for a number of 'conservative' student organizations at VT."
Stiles credits Thomas Crawford, the department chair, for "doing as much as he possibly can." Saskia van de Geve, the department dean, is travelling in Africa at the moment and Stiles expects to meet up with her when she returns in early October. Stiles also provided Restoration News with statements from Cyril R. Clarke, Virginia Tech's executive vice president and provost, and Bryan Garey, vice president for human resources, that cover the university's code of conduct and issues involving civility and freedom of expression.
"These words are not going to mean very much if there's no enforcement," Stiles said. "The professor's comments about the Klan violated all the key parts of these statements put out by our university officials involving the conduct of faculty members."
Stiles also told Restoration News he had sent emails to the history department and Laura A. Belmonte, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, inquiring about their reaction to Copeland's remarks. They have not responded to Stiles.
Restoration News contacted Crawford, van de Geve, Copeland, the university Board of Visitors, and other university staff inviting them to comment, but none of them responded by publication time.
More than 2500 people reportedly attended a subsequent Turning Point USA event at Virginia Tech Thursday, Sept. 24. Kirk was originally scheduled to host the event. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, and Megyn Kelly, a prominent media personality, were the featured speakers at the rally. They both encouraged Virginia Tech students to continue Kirk's work.
Stiles has a valid point—Prof. Copeland's incendiary remarks make potential targets out of every person who attended that rally, as well as future events. Virginia Tech must take definitive action to ensure that such incitement gets quickly tamped down, and never happens again.
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