August 2, 2007

University Faces Free-Speech Lawsuit for Suspending Student Over Web Site

In a free-speech lawsuit against the University of Delaware, a student is arguing that campus officials had no right to suspend him for creating a Web site they deemed “racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic.”

The student, Maciej Murakowski, built the controversial site in 2005, and he used it to post a series of graphically violent movie reviews and other ruminations. But the site, which resided on university servers, did not draw the attention of administrators until this past January, when Mr. Murakowski wrote about an imaginary sexual position called “The Sociopath.”

The university suspended him in April, shortly after the Virginia Tech shootings, when many colleges and universities started taking very seriously any Facebook posts or student Web sites that seemed the least bit threatening. Mr. Murakowski was accused of violating Delaware’s policies on disruptive conduct and computer use, and was told that he would be barred from class and from his dormitory until he received a psychiatric evaluation.

A psychiatrist concluded that Mr. Murakowski was not a threat to himself or to others, but Delaware officials decided to ban him from the campus until this fall. At that point, Mr. Murakowski will be eligible to apply for readmission, but he will not be permitted to enter any residence halls, according to the Associated Press.

Now he says the university is denying his rights to free speech and due process. His lawsuit asks that he be reinstated as a student, given credit for the classes he missed, and awarded punitive damages. —Brock Read

Comments

1. In order to understand this issue fully, we need to know the exact wording of the policy he broke. We also need to know the reason why they will let him come back to school in Fall but will not let him enter any residence halls.

   — Janet A.    Aug 2, 04:16 PM    #

2. In the name of Constitutional Rights, mentally ill students want to do anything they want. This student should have been monitored and expelled from the university.

   — Kan Chandras    Aug 2, 06:08 PM    #

3. this is just another example of how the u.s. constitution is crumbling and our free speech rights are rapidly eroding.

   — Perry    Aug 2, 09:13 PM    #

4. Hate speech and other speech likely to incite violence is not protected speech – it makes no difference if the person saying it has been deemed mentally ill or not. A state university does not have to let speech that is offensive, harassing, and/or threatening reside on state-owned servers.

   The article indicates that this student does not understand what the Constitution was meant to protect. He has a right to his views and he has plenty of places – other than the university campus – where he is free to express them. The University not only has the right, but the duty to protect other students and faculty from offensive conduct. Kudos to University of Delaware for putting a stop to this nonsense. It is so easy to get people stirred-up by claiming a that your “Constitutional rights” have been violated. One does not need a policy to know when someone is acting inappropriately.

   — Jeannie    Aug 2, 10:05 PM    #

5. I agree that the University has no requirement to host his website, and that it should have been removed. But I am not at all sure that suspending him over it was not a violation. As Janet said, without knowing the policy, it is hard to know what he violated. But even the policy may be unconstitutional. If he had been judged a danger to himself or others, the school should have removed the threat, but without that determination, the suspension is questionable, IMHO.

   — Robert    Aug 3, 10:42 AM    #

6. This type of speech is not protected by our constitution. University administrators also have the responsibility to protect other students on campus and other members of society. He should not be using University of Delaware
   computers and servers for this type of communication. If we are not doing this already throughout the higher education system, we should be getting students to sign a contract for using College
   systems. We do this in the private sector and it appears to hold up to legal scrutiny.

   As the parent of a 19 year old college student, I applaud the University of Delaware for this action and trying to protect our children.

   — Renee Jones    Aug 3, 08:02 PM    #

7. The school’s computer use policy allows students to have their own websites, and further states that the University will not attempt to exercise any control over the content.

   The school’s disruptive conduct policy merely states that students may not engage in disruptive conduct. In this case, according to the news reports I have read, the “disruptive conduct” was a complaint from one female that she was upset by the contents of the website, although apparently several females also testified at the hearing that they were not upset by the content.

   — Anon    Aug 4, 12:42 PM    #

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