Traveling 9/11 exhibit says they won't visit Fresno State after instructor's antiTrump social media post
Apr 02, 2025
FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - The fallout continues after a Fresno State lecturer posted images on social media featuring an image showing President Donald Trump in a coffin, and encouraging protests against Tesla's owner, Elon Musk.
The organizers behind a 9/11 traveling exhibit say they do not w
ant to come to the university after seeing the posts.
"We're not going to risk anybody's lives in this exhibition. The staff and volunteers that help us and do this, we're just not going to do it," CEO of 9/11 Remembered Traveling Memorial Eric Robertson said.
Fresno State instructor can ‘be stupid and say stupid things,’ says Bredefeld
The group is dedicated to traveling across the nation, teaching the facts of what happened on Sept. 11, 2001. They bring artifacts to people who may otherwise never make it to a museum on the other side of the country.
And now, they're crossing Fresno State off their list.
Robertson says the traveling memorial just can't risk coming after seeing what Fresno State instructor Katherine Shurik posted online. One of her posts showed an edited picture of former presidents gathered around President Trump in a coffin, and another picture showed an edit of a tombstone with Trump's date of birth listed with the words "now would be good" for the date for when he would die.
Robertson says between those posts and her alleged encouragement for protests against Tesla, they think coming to the campus would be a bad idea.
"We consider this domestic terrorism. You go out and terrorize private businesses, you go out and terrorize a community for extra credit for her own personal beliefs, is unacceptable. We don't think that our exhibition is a safe thing to have at Fresno State University," he said.
He says he wants the school to let Shurik go, and says their statement against her posts wasn't strong enough. YourCentralValley.com reached out to the school about what the exhibit had to say, but didn't hear back.
On Tuesday, the University provided this statement about the instructor's posts.
We strongly condemn the abhorrent social media posts and comments made by one of our part-time instructors … they do not represent our University in any way. Fresno State firmly denounces wishes of death against any elected official, particularly the President of the United States – these go against our core educational values and are not consistent with our Principles of Community.
Fresno State
The group says they plan to come to California sometime in 2026, but it's not clearly exactly when they planned to come to Fresno State, or where on campus they would have set up. They say they would still consider coming, but they would not want Shurik there, and they'd want more action from the university on this issue first. ...read more read less