
May a college expel a student for ‘unprofessional speech’ in Facebook posts? - ayanai
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/03/27/may-a-college-expel-a-student-for-unprofessional-speech-in-facebook-posts/
======
tim333
tl;dr the student posted

"I give her a big fat F for changing the group power point at eleven last
night and resubmitting." "Im going to take this electric pencil sharpener in
this class and give someone a hemopneumothorax with it before to long"

Seems to me that abuse and threats of violence can get you expelled/fired
regardless of the medium.

~~~
wallacoloo
Ignoring whether or not it's valid to claim that as a "threat of violence",
this article makes it sound like the prosecution's case is built upon the use
of unprofessional language, as opposed to any threat of violence.

[edit] Certainly a threat of violence also falls under the category of
"unprofessional language", but my point is that if you swapped this out with
(say) a non-threatening yet equally disrespectful phrase, the case wouldn't be
noticeably different.

~~~
baddox
And not ignoring it for a moment, it's very clearly not a legitimate threat of
violence.

------
doug1001
the rubric 'unprofessional speech' is a poor choice

this a student not a professional, part of the reason they are in university;
the fact is that they are not a 'professional' nor do they spend the bulk of
their time around other professionals

it's ok to hold university students to various standards of conduct/behaviour
but "professional" shouldn't be one of them.

~~~
tucaz
I'm 30 and didn't go to college. I work professionally as a developer since I
was 17. If I go to School now I'm not a professional anymore?

~~~
metaphor
You may find the wiki page on equivocation[1] interesting in the context of
your argument.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivocation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivocation)

------
mirimir
Well, many who opposed adoption of the U.S. Constitution did so anonymously,
to avoid retribution.[0]

0) [http://www.learnliberty.org/blog/anonymity-and-doxing-in-
the...](http://www.learnliberty.org/blog/anonymity-and-doxing-in-
the-1787-ratification-debates/)

Edit: My point is that, leaving aside argument about whether anonymity is
"good" or "bad", it's often prudent.[1]

1)
[http://scholar.uwindsor.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&...](http://scholar.uwindsor.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=csspe)

------
samstave
Can students expel faculty for their actions?

~~~
InclinedPlane
Yes, faculty can be fired for violating the code of conduct or their
contracts.

------
yuhong
This is a good time to mention
[https://www.reddit.com/r/EtherMining/comments/60qe8k/mining_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/EtherMining/comments/60qe8k/mining_on_university_computer/df94zt7/)

~~~
danso
Why mention a hypothetical when we have real-world cases?

[http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/local/update-
illicit-...](http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/local/update-illicit-
litecoin-mining-discovered-at-mu-s-reynolds-
journalism/article_f154ec40-760b-58cc-9d20-f29f33af6b9f.html)

> _COLUMBIA — Two MU students have been accused of running an unauthorized
> Litecoin mining operation on computers in the Reynolds Journalism Institute.
> MU Police Capt. Brian Weimer said that Eric Wichmann and Josh O 'Steen were
> arrested by MU police Dec. 6 on suspicion of tampering with computer data.
> Weimer said they were arrested on suspicion of a misdemeanor violation of
> the state tampering statute, though tampering can also be a class D felony.
> Wichmann, an Internet technology major, and O'Steen, a computer science
> major, went to the police station voluntarily and were released the same day
> on a summons, the two students said._

~~~
clubm8
How profitable is Litecoin mining? I'm curious how much $$$ these kids blew up
their future for.

