College Backs Off Charges Against Student Who Used Image of Trump as Zoom Background
“school still alleges that a Facebook post Dailyda wrote saying that he would “fight to the death for our country” was disruptive behavior, which could lead to minimum punishments”
Once the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education got involved here, the school suddenly saw the light. This is why FIRE is so important.
FOX News reports:
College backs off charges against student who used Trump photo on Zoom, still claims Facebook post broke rules
A New Jersey college has backed off five of the six student code of conduct charges it had leveled against a student who used a picture of President Trump as his Zoom background and wrote an allegedly inflammatory political Facebook post — but the school is still claiming the Facebook post constitutes “disruptive behavior.”
Stockton University previously charged doctoral student Robert Dailyda with disruptive behavior; discrimination; harassment; hostile environment; harm; and bullying and cyberbullying, but this week removed all of those charges but one, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a First Amendment group representing him. The school, in a Tuesday letter, said that all of the original charges, including the one still leveled against Dailyda, were related to the Facebook post and not the Trump Zoom picture that started the chain of events leading to the Facebook post.
The school still alleges that a Facebook post Dailyda wrote saying that he would “fight to the death for our country” was disruptive behavior, which could lead to minimum punishments including probation, community service and a fine.
UPDATE:
Yesterday, @Stockton_edu dropped 5/6 charges against the student.
Today, we wrote to Stockton to address the remaining trumped-up “disruptive behavior” charge.
Dropping some of the charges is a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough.https://t.co/sMfKiEeCst https://t.co/uHhsiysfbi
— FIRE (@TheFIREorg) August 11, 2020
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Comments
If they can’t have a pound of flesh, maybe there can be a compromise on a few ounces?
“trumped up” – – – tee hee.
Isn’t fighting to the death for ones country a patriotic duty, and isn’t it every university’s job to instill patriotism in its students? Yes, it is to bitterly laugh, but seriously isn’t that the only reason why universities get tax breaks and subsidies, and students get help to go there? Why does the government encourage the education industry more than, say, the welding, basket-weaving, or prostitution industries, if not for the supposed benefit the country receives from having a population that has been educated with civic virtues including patriotism? Isn’t that how it was originally sold? I think the line has to be drawn when a university officially says fighting for ones country is not a virtue but a vice, and is to be discouraged rather than encouraged.
When posting a picture of a Sitting President is considered cause for disciplinary action….it’s Inconceivable. And yes, that word does mean what I think it means.