The Arizona State University mental health crisis center hotline confirmed on Thursday that a joke made by Fresno State Professor Randa Jarrar clogged their phone line for two days.
Embattled Fresno State Professor Randa Jarrar came under fire this week after she celebrated the death of former First Lady Barbara Bush in a series of tweets. “Barbara Bush was a generous and smart and amazing racist who, along with her husband, raised a war criminal. F**k outta here with your nice words,” Jarrar tweeted earlier this week.
Now, Jarrar is being called out by Arizona State University for a prank she pulled on Twitter this week. When a Twitter user posted the phone number for Jarrar’s office at Fresno State (she is currently on a spring semester leave), Jarrar responded by providing what she claimed was her actual personal phone number.”If you really wanna reach me, here’s my number ok?” she tweeted.
The number she provided was actually for Arizona State University’s 24-hour mental health crisis hotline.
According to the crisis center, which is run through the university’s counseling services office, the crisis hotline typically receives five calls per week. A day after Jarrar’s prank, the hotline was still receiving 50 to 70 calls per hour.
Arizona State University claims that they have no affiliation with Professor Jarrar.
Jarrar faced criticism for the prank from political commentators across the political spectrum. Dr. Eugene Gu, a resident physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and prolific Trump critic, told Jarrar to “stop.”
Although it’s likely that it would be unconstitutional for Jarrar to be disciplined for her crude tweets about Barbara Bush’s death, it is unclear if she will face repercussions for endangering the students at Arizona State University with her reckless prank.