flutterecho writes "A sophomore at Valdosta State University was expelled after criticizing his university's plan to build two new parking garages with student fees. In a letter apparently slipped under his dorm room door, Ronald Zaccari, the university's president, wrote that he "present[ed] a clear and present danger to this campus" and referred to an image on the student's Facebook page which contained a threatening description.
"As additional evidence of the threat posed by Barnes, the document referred to a link he posted to his Facebook profile whose accompanying graphic read: "Shoot it. Upload it. Get famous. Project Spotlight is searching for the next big thing. Are you it?" It doesn't mention that Project Spotlight was an online digital video contest and that "shoot" in that context meant "record." The appeal also mentions that Barnes's profile stated, at one point, that he was "cleaning out and rearranging his room and thus, his mind, or so he hopes." That was likely a status update, commonly used by Facebook members to update their friends on what they're doing at a particular moment — whether literally or metaphorically."
In a post-Virginia Tech world, has university surveillance of online identities gone too far?" Link to Original Source
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The administrators, not the student. Looks like they are opening themselves up to a big lawsuit for making a knee-jerk post-Columbine reaction to an innocent blog posting criticizing the way the university is spending the student's fees. It's like the government saying you can't complain about what they do with your tax money.
I lived in Valdosta for a few years, and this really is par for the course there. Heck, there are even counties there where it's illegal to go trick-or-treating on Halloween! It is a very religious area, and the 'good ol boy' attitude there is a lot like the mantra of the Borg - "resistance is futile, you WILL be assimilated".
I feel sorry for this kid, he should not have to deal with this kind of thing since he didn't do anything wrong.
The University System of Georgia Board of Regents is meeting on Wednesday and Thursday. After backing out of a hearing procedure which they established to give an opportunity for due process, we filled a civil rights and discrimination lawsuit in Federal court. It may be more effective to contact the Board of Regents at this point.
Office of the Chancellor Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia Suite 7025 270 Washington Street, SW Atlanta, GA 30334 office: (404) 656-2202 fax: (404) 657-6979 email: chan
Crazy. (Score:2)
I've been there (Score:1)
I feel sorry for this kid, he should not have to deal with this kind of thing since he didn't do anything wrong.
Barnes v. Zaccari, et al (Score:1)
It may be more effective to contact the Board of Regents at this point.
Office of the Chancellor
Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia
Suite 7025
270 Washington Street, SW
Atlanta, GA 30334
office: (404) 656-2202
fax: (404) 657-6979
email: chan