President Donald J. Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House on Wednesday, July 8, 2020. (Official White House photo by Tia Dufour)
A student at New Jersey's Stockton University is vowing to fight back after some students complained about the image of President Trump he used as a background during a Zoom meeting.
The statement comes from doctoral student Robert Dailyda, who explained on Facebook that he's had enough of "the leftist agenda of BLM and the white self haters. I have seen it in action in my doctoral classes at Stockton and the general media. I'm not backing down. If we can't get past this, ok, I'm ready to fight to the death for our count[r]y and against those that want to take it down."
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which wrote to Stockton warning its actions to charge Dailyda could be viewed as violative of the First Amendment, said,
"if that, in Stockton’s estimation, is worthy of investigation, wait until they learn about Patrick Henry."
FIRE explained that Dailyda faces six charges from the university, including harassment and cyberbullying, "and may have to take a 'social justice workshop' if found guilty."
"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.
The fight erupted when Dailyda "used a photo of the president as his Zoom background during a July 1 virtual class.
Other students complained about him in a private GroupMe chat, saying they felt "taunted."
School officials then "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 school then accused him of violating the code of conduct for disruptive behavior, discrimination, harassment, creating a hostile environment, causing harm, and cyberbullying.
"Stockton’s organizational leadership program claims to focus on the integrity of leadership, however from my experience they do not associate integrity with free speech and open debate," said Dailyda. "They have created a deeply embedded and systematic environment that squelches the free speech of those who disagree with their radical agenda. I never thought I would see this from a public university that should be facilitating a marketplace for the full spectrum of ideas, not a monopoly."
FIRE told Stockton officials, however, they have a responsibility to respect the First Amendment, which protects expression even if those officials don't like it. In fact, as a public university, the First Amendment is binding on Stockton, the FIRE letter said.
FIRE officials noted the only evidence the school had was that some individuals complained Dailyda's "expression" was "offensive, threatening, and concerning" to them. They complained of feeling "offended, disrespected, and taunted."
"Here, Dailyda's Facebook post is clearly political hyperbole meriting the highest level of First Amendment protection," FIRE charged. "The expression here is clearly protected. It did not disrupt any university activity, nor does it amount to an unprotected true threat or harassment. … Stockton may not permissibly use its disciplinary process to punish Dailyda for his protected political expression."
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