The Student Press Law Center has filed a brief in support of a student who in 2007 was summarily expelled from Valdosta State University, Georgia, for protesting the buidling of a parking garage, a pet project of then school president Ronald Zaccari.
In 2010 U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell of the Northern District of Georgia ruled not only that Zaccari had violated Barnes’ right to a due process hearing, but that the law so clearly favored Barnes that Zaccari can be held personally liable for financial damages.
The university is now appealing the decision. The case is Barnes v. Zaccari, Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Case No. 10-14622. The case will be assigned to a three-judge panel; no hearing date has been set, and a final decision typically takes at least half a year.
Frank D. LoMonte, executive director of the SPLC, who authored the brief with SPLC attorneys Laura Napoli, Adam Schulman and Adam Goldstein, explained the organization’s interest although Barnes was not a student journalist:
“We have too often seen colleges use the threat of student conduct charges to intimidate journalists, and it is vital that the court send a strong message that students cannot be railroaded out of college in kangaroo-court proceedings just because of what they write.”
Barnes is represented by media-law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP, and its partner, Robert Corn-Revere, and by Cary Stephen Wiggins of Atlanta-based Cook Youngelson & Wiggins.
SPLC Supports Georgia Student Activist in Legal Challenge to College Expulsion – SPLC News Flashes.
One Comment
The decision to expel the student was clearly disproportionate..if all he/she was doing was protesting a planning decision.
Surely there was more to this than just a planning protest?
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