University Student Faces Suspension and Fine for Using Image of Trump as Zoom Background
“with the help of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, he’s fighting back”
Other students were triggered by the image of President Trump, and this student may be forced to take a social justice workshop as a result.
The FIRE blog reports:
Student faces possible suspension, fine for Zoom background of President Trump
A student at Stockton University is facing disciplinary charges for a political Facebook post and making his Zoom background a photo of President Donald Trump during class, causing other students to feel “taunted.” Today, with the help of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, he’s fighting back.
“Like its Atlantic City neighbor, Stockton is doubling down and gambling with students’ constitutional rights — a risky bet when FIRE is involved,” said Zach Greenberg, author of FIRE’s letter to Stockton President Harvey Kesselman.
Doctoral student Robert Dailyda used a photo of the president as his Zoom background during a July 1 virtual class, prompting complaints from other students in a private GroupMe chat after class. Dailyda removed himself from the chat in order to, as Stockton acknowledged, “avoid continued conflict.” The administration wrote in an incident report that the photo caused students “to feel offended, disrespected, and taunted.”
On July 10, administrators asked him to explain his political views, claiming that students were offended by his Zoom background, comments in the GroupMe chat, and a subsequent Facebook post defending his expression, which the university claimed students found “offensive, threatening, and concerning.” The university also expressed concern about comments others left on the post.
In his post, Dailyda wrote in part, “I’m ready to fight to the death for our county and against those that want to take it down.” (If that, in Stockton’s estimation, is worthy of investigation, wait until they learn about Patrick Henry.)
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Comments
A lot more students need to be triggered, but in a different sense of the word.
“Preparing for hyperspace. It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.”
“What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?”
“You ask a glass of water.”
.
It takes lots of time and energy to be on the lookout for potential sources of offensive acts or speech.
It’s a heckuva way to spend one’s college years. You have to wonder how being offended helps in one’s life and career.
You have to wonder how being offended helps in one’s life and career.
Colleges continue to expand their Offices of Diversity Enforcement. Many companies’ HR departments are hiring. Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook need more “fact-checkers”.
Or I suppose one could simply continue being a full-time activist for leftwing causes and cashing those checks from George Soros.
Oops, I forgot another possibility: one could become an indepedent entrepreneur and follow in the footsteps of shakedown artists like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Benjamin Crump.
The future is bright!
That suffers from the same defect as multi-level marketing schemes. Eventually you run out of chumps to be at the bottom of the pyramid.
I wasn’t aware that a student’s political views were within a university administrator’s purview.
They’re not. That doesn’t stop them asking him to explain them. But if the answer is “That’s none of your business”, they have to accept it, and since they seem reluctant to do so their lawyer is going to have to explain it to them. In small words and large figures.
It’s literally like a nightmare dystopia. America used to guarantee one’s freedom of expression. How can a picture of one’s leader result in punitive action? In America?
This isn’t the America you and I grew up in. That’s gone. One of two things will happen: a very nasty civil war and an ultimate splitting up of the country, or, we lose and become Europe.
I wonder how many of the students who claimed “offense” by Mr. Dailyda’s background have a BLM, Antifa, or other anti-American sentiment as their background. Anyone report being offended by those, and with what outcome?
“..administrators asked him to explain his political views…” That, all by itself, tells you that he’s being persecuted and punished for his wrong-think.