Posted on 08/03/2015 7:38:32 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Occasionally, you come across a legal case so strange that it makes you stop and wonder, “Is this even for real?”
Such a case has recently come to an end with a strong victory for student free speech rights and an equally strong rebuke to the idea many college administrators seem to have that they hold king-like powers on campus. The facts are as follows.
In early 2007, Hayden Barnes was a student at Valdosta State University in Georgia (VSU) when school officials announced plans to build a new parking garage using $30 million in student fee money. Barnes, an avid environmentalist, opposed the plan and made his opposition known. He posted flyers, wrote a letter to the campus paper and sent emails to the faculty senate, the Board of Regents, and to President Zaccari.
Barnes kept up his opposition and later posted a collage on his Facebook page in which he referred to “the Zaccari Memorial Parking Garage.” Barnes meant that as a sarcastic reference to Zaccari’s comment that the new garage would be part of his “legacy” at the university. But by now Barnes had so gotten under Zaccari’s skin that he and several administrators seized upon the post as a pretext for having him expelled as a “threat” to campus safety.
So, on May 7, 2007, Barnes received a letter from President Zaccari, which declared that “as a result of recent activities directed towards me by you, including but not limited to the attached threat document, you are considered to present a clear and present danger to this campus.” Using the current euphemism for expulsion, Barnes was informed that he had been “administratively withdrawn” from school and would have no opportunity to contest the decision.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Liberals are really fascists at heart.
This is why I think all responsible managers in any state or public setting....ought to be bonded and be responsible for their screw-ups. They each ought to pay up a million-dollar bond and if they do something like as in this case...they lose their bond, and the next acquired bond ought to cost triple or more than what they previously paid.
Whatever happened to the fascist dude, President Zaccari? Proceeds with impunity, and even has a parking garage named for him?
Addressing that problem, FIRE president Greg Lukianoff observes in a recent Huffington Post piece, “The reason why we see so many abuses of student and faculty rights on campus is no doubt, at least in part, that top administrators involved in even clear violations of the Constitution rarely, if ever, see any consequences other than well-deserved public embarrassment.”
How about reigning in the abusive university speech police who seem to tolerate anything except traditional American pride and values!
Both the administrator and the judge.
And the kid.
They are all liberal fascists.
It took 8 years and $900K in attorney’s fees to get to this decision.
The student was the liberal, but that doesn’t make the college president’s case any better. He was acting the douche.
The student, “would have no opportunity to contest the decision.”
The College apparently does not recognize classic, textbook state action in the suppression of free speech. The “professors” there are probably teaching the same thing.
Actually he should have just fired him for insubordination, and then this case would not have any merit and would have been dismissed. I really don’t see this as a freedom of speech issue, just a mishandling by the dean on how we went about firing an insubordinate employee.
Nevermind, was a student, not an employee... ignore my post.
Thanks for posting. A very interesting and GOOD NEWS story. Not good news that the taxpayers of GA will have to pay the $90,000 judgment but maybe, JUST MAYBE, legislators will pass a law making all administrators at universities liable, responsible and accountable for their own actions. As the article stated - and related stories - they along with other PUBLIC SERVANTS have long considered themselves above the laws that govern the rest of us!!! It’s way past time for that to change!
$90,000 = $900,000
Lost a zero - sorry!
Mission accomplished. Zaccari kicked the kid out of school and faced no legal consequences and knew it. He delayed the student for 8 years, side tracking his educational goals, maliciously slandered him, and gets away scott free.
This is why it’s more than worth it for progressives to just throw lawsuits at conservatives. Delay them, tie them up in court, force them to roll the judicial dice, then only the most egregious actually are held accountable.
“”Whatever happened to the fascist dude, President Zaccari? Proceeds with impunity, and even has a parking garage named for him?””
Looks like he retired in 2008 - a year after the litigation began... Looks like he was hobnobbing around the country’s universities for too many years as it was. He wanted to pursue his love of “sculpture.”
I read several related stories and didn’t find anything about the parking garage being built among the controversy and legal battles.
According to some replies on this thread, I guess liberals (some have made that distinction against the student) don’t have any rights to proceed against action that this university president took. Interesting! Some rights for some and not for all, I guess.
“”faced no legal consequences and knew it””
He was personally responsible for the first judgment of $50,000 before the protracted litigation. Guess he figured he was home free after that and he was right!
Unfortunately, The TCU administration doesn’t have to claim a flimsy immunity defense: it’s a private institution, and therefore the same kind of pressure can’t be brought to bear and this precedent does not apply.
With all of the diversity classes indoctrinating the university and college students, a result of these court cases should require all universities and colleges to implement a course teaching the students their rights as students to include how to redress grievances against these petty tyrants. Specifically, no student should be required to accept punishment without a possibility to address the punishment.
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