A graduate student at New Jersey’s Montclair State University is facing a semester-long suspension and a permanent note on his transcript based on some Facebook comments not unlike what almost everyone has said at some point in his or her life.
The story began a few months before the suspension, when Joseph Aziz commented on the weight of a heckler at a Young Americans for Liberty event.
He has since apologized for the comments, explaining they were made out of frustration “with what I perceived as an attack on the speaker whose appearance my group sponsored.”
After the comments, which were posted on YouTube and included the allegation the heckler’s legs looked like a “pair of bleached hams” became public, school administrators disciplined Aziz and prohibited him from making any other social media comments about the heckler.
Recently, Aziz made a seemingly innocuous comment about the same individual on the page of a private Facebook group. When a group member sent the comment to the university, officials jumped at the chance to suspend him and forever sully his college transcript.
“Are you so focused on non-productive activities such as Facebook and ‘trolling’ that you have misplaced your priorities?” asks a college administrator in a letter to the student.
The college is relying on New Jersey’s rather strict anti-bullying “bill of rights,” though equating any impolite comment with bullying in need of punishment is completely outrageous.
At its worst, this appears to be nothing more than an inconsiderate act by a young man.
Unfortunately, his school wants to make sure a relatively minor lapse in judgment follows him for the rest of his life.
A molecular biology student, Aziz said “the ability to advance in my career is severely hindered without a graduate degree,” adding that a transfer to another school “is also difficult since a disciplinary suspension is noted on my transcript.”
We now live in a brave new world of constant government intrusion as individuals face punishment for private speech that should unquestionably be protected by the First Amendment.
Though I often criticize groups like the ACLU for actually arguing for limitations on our freedom, one civil liberties group has rightly come to the student’s defense.
“As an agency of the government, Montclair State has no power to order students not to discuss any topic or person on independent social media sites like Facebook,” argues an official with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
So far, the school has shown no signs of reversing this foolish decision and likely won’t – at least without constant pressure from freedom-loving patriots fed up with this vast overreach of power.
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I detest bullying in any form. However, I think the coellge is overstepping it’s bounds I’m going to assume he is a paying customer at this college.
I take it then you would call Obama a bully? Look what he did to Romney/Ryan on NATIONAL TV. Did anybody reprimand him? Of course not. All he got was praise for doing it from the libs and the MSM. Evidently, being a dictator has its benefits.
Then I would demand my tuition back and go to a more tolerant school. However, it would be nice if someone would help him pay for a lawsuit and sue the butts off this university.
I agree. But the First Amendment is dead. We can say anything we want as long as we have government permission to say it. Other Amendmants have been stomped on. But ovomit doesn`t care and now the 2nd is to be abolished. Can`t totally control the people of a country if they can fight back and take out a corrupt government, dictator or king.
The Constitution says we have freedom of speach. Unless Obama has gotten the Constitution changed by now. We will have far less freedom by the end of his Presidency.
Yep, we sure do have Freedom of Speech. But, in our new paranoid society that the media has created, it only applies unless someone wants to whine that you hurt their feelings. Then it’s a High Crime. With this fool in the White House, our Constitution and Bill of Rights are null and void. All of his ‘Executive Orders would prove just that.
The punishment is excessive; however this student was in school when anti-bullying became an issue and is still an issue. Slow learner – hope he picks up speed in college.
This incident shows how many people in our society have become finger pointers, spies, judges, tattle-tales – Obama has taught us well…..he and Big Brother are punishing Americans for the most miniscule infractions (involving Freedom of Speech), setting the rules and the sheeple follow.
This country is so dysfunctional !
The term “bullying” has been morphed into something it never meant… there is insulting, there is harrassment, and there is bullying… insulting is covered under freedom of speech, so they’ve pushed it under the “bullying” blanket.. we’ve watched this term incorrectly used in politics quite extensively these past few years… but you would think a place of learning would have more sense…
Bullying in the lower grades is totally different than past 12 or 13…. Why is it some people are so super sensitive as to allow what someone says to bother you. I have been called every name in the book… I just considered the source…. But to suspend a sudent for such actions only adds to what they will sneak around and do later. If a child will ignore or laugh at the idiot who spews such things.. they will eventually stop… when they see it makes you mad.. or you go and tattle.. they will continue to do it. thus making the situation worse. When the heckler gets no response in return for the ‘funny’ he is supposedly shoveling out to some one… he will eventurally stop… All hecklers want a response.. and if they dont get one.. they’ve purpose has been defeated… So dont give a heckler this satisfaction… either laugh at them.. or totally ignore them… its best to laugh… Parents should tell their kids this too…