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A Yale University teacher who sparked protests when she said students should be free to push boundaries with Halloween costumes resigned from her teaching position, the school said Monday.

Faculty member Erika Christakis, who taught courses on child development and psychology, chose not to keep teaching in the spring semester, the Ivy League university announced via its website.

It said: 'Her teaching is highly valued and she is welcome to resume teaching anytime at Yale, where freedom of expression and academic inquiry are the paramount principle and practice.'

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Yale University faculty member Erika Christakis will not teach at the school for the spring semester

 

 

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Hundreds of Yale students and supporters marched across the school's campus in New Haven, Connecticut, last month to protest what they see as racial incidents at the school, including an email sent by Christakis

 

 

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A student screamed at Yale faculty member Nicholas Christakis, who is married to Erika, (left) after he said he would not stop people from wearing Halloween costumes that could be seen as offensive

Christakis came under attack in October for her response to a request from the Intercultural Affairs Committee that students avoid wearing racially insensitive costumes, such as Native American headgear, turbans or blackface. 

She wrote in an email to students living in the residence hall where she was an administrator that they should be able to wear any costume they wanted.

'Is there no room anymore for a child or young person to be a little bit obnoxious, a little bit inappropriate or provocative or, yes, offensive?' she wrote. 

'American universities were once a safe space not only for maturation but also for a certain regressive, or even transgressive, experience; increasingly, it seems, they have become places of censure and prohibition.'

In a widely shared web video, a student screamed at Yale faculty member Nicholas Christakis, who is married to Erika, after he said he would not stop people from wearing Halloween costumes that could be seen as offensive 

 

 

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One student (left) launched into a expletive-ridden rant at Nicholas Christakis (right), after he was trying to tell her why he felt the university should not censor what people wear with regard to Halloween costumes

The email was one of several incidents on campus that prompted hundreds of students and faculty members to march in protest on November 9 of what they saw as racial insensitivity at the school.

The school also has been dealing with criticism over a residential hall named after John Calhoun, a prominent slave-owning politician, questions about how minorities are treated on campus and allegations that a woman was turned away from a fraternity party because she was not white.

After the march, dozens of faculty members contributed to an open letter showing support for Christakis.

'I have great respect and affection for my students, but I worry that the current climate at Yale is not, in my view, conducive to the civil dialogue and open inquiry required to solve our urgent societal problems,' Christakis said in an email to The Washington Post.

 

 

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The marchers were upset over allegations a woman was denied from a frat party because she was not white

During the 'March of Resilience,' students held signs, including one that read, 'Don't Look Away.' 

They chanted, 'We out here. We've been here. We ain't leaving. We are loved' as they marched from the Afro-American Cultural Center across campus and past the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house. 

University President Peter Salovey held a four-hour forum with students to hear their grievances and then sent a campuswide email saying he was deeply troubled by the atmosphere on campus. 

He called on the community to come together to create greater 'inclusion, healing, mutual respect and understanding' at Yale.