President Donald J. Trump waves and gestures to the crowd upon his arrival to Midland International Air and Space Port in Midland, Texas, Wednesday, July 29, 2020, where he was greeted by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, Texas Lt.Gov. Dan Patrick, Texas Republican Chairman Allen West, U.S. Representative candidates, and members of the community. (Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead)
Officials at Stockton University have called it quits in their war against a student who said he was "ready to fight to the death for our country" and used an image of President Trump in the background for a class Zoom meeting.
"The university is withdrawing the charge under the Campus Conduct Code set forth in my letter dated August 10, 2020," school spokesman Craig Stambaugh said in a letter this week to Robert Dailyda.
That last charge involved Dailyda's online statements, as several other counts originally brought by the school were dropped earlier.
Officials with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education had fought the school on behalf of Dailyda, a doctoral student.
"Stockton finally did the right thing — but it shouldn’t take action from FIRE and negative publicity to get a public institution to uphold students' First Amendment rights," said Zach Greenberg, the author of FIRE’s letters to the school.
Dailyda had said on Facebook, "I’m ready to fight to the death for our country and against those that want to take it down."
He was expressing frustration with the campaigns that are being conducted against the U.S. now, by leftists and rioters.
The school had complained that other students thought that posting was "offensive, threatening, and concerning."
He also had triggered leftists on campus when he used a photo of President Trump as his Zoom background during a virtual class.
Stockton’s incident report described the background and stated that the photo caused students to feel "offended, disrespected, and taunted," but that and several related charges soon were dropped.
That left only the complaint over the Facebook post.
"I appreciate Stockton coming to realize that they overreacted to my actions," Dailyda said in a statement released by FIRE. 'However, I am appalled that it required me to take the steps to enlist FIRE to assist me in overcoming these unjust charges. I remain concerned that there are others who reached out to me in this process who don’t have the wherewithal to push back in their own cases. I am hopeful that positive change will result from this case."
The school had set Dailyda up for punishments up to and including suspension and mandatory "decision making workshop" attendance.
Stambaugh's letter to Dailyda expressly suggested that ways were available for Dailyda to finish a summer course which he was taking, and to restore his status at the school, offering guidance "on the process to rescind your recent withdrawal."
Stambaugh said the school was working on "a mediation" to address "the concerns" that were the reason for the Facebook post-related charge.
Dailyda also had written that he'd 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," he wrote. "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."
FIRE had warned the university's president in a letter that its charges and possible punishment of Dailyda could violate the First Amendment.
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