It sounds like the comments were warranted. What’s the problem here?
The College Fix reports:
Central Washington U. punishes student who called staff ‘incompetent’A free speech group is intervening to help a student punished by Central Washington University for criticizing financial aid staff in an email.The public university in Ellensburg required Victor Unger to take an “anger management assessment” and apologize after he called financial aid staff “incompetent” for “what he saw as an erroneous denial of student loans that would imperil his ability to graduate.”“Why is it every year you guys drop the ball,” Unger wrote, according to a recent letter sent by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “Seriously I will come down and take [c]are of this myself. The incompetence in your department is unbelievable.”“I will be there at 3:30pm today, have the whole staff gather for a meeting so I can take care of your job for you, and teach the rest how simple the job is,” he wrote on June 11.“How incompetent are you,” he also asked. FIRE’s letter states Unger had a “heated phone call” with a “student financial aid worker” over the situation as well.The school required Unger to take an “anger management assessment” and write an apology letter. The punishment came after a conduct staffer “found Unger responsible for Disruptive/Obstructive Conduct and Personal Offenses claiming he ‘unreasonably hindered the daily administrative operations of the Financial Aid Office’ and ‘incited staff members … to be fearful for their safety.’”But this violated his First Amendment rights according to FIRE.FIRE’s Senior Counsel Haley Gluhanich told The College Fix “a public university’s code of conduct cannot attempt to regulate speech that the Constitution protects. If the speech is protected by the First Amendment, we’ll defend it,”“Nothing in the student’s email can be construed as intending to commit an act of violence,” Gluhanich told The Fix via email.She disputed the university’s claim that the criticism hindered the work of the financial aid office.
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