First Coast Technical College is defending its controversial decision to suspend a student over photos she posted to Facebook of her at a gun range.
According to a report by The College Fix, First Coast Technical College in Florida is fighting back against a lawsuit from Dia’mon Dallas, who was suspended from the college for posting a photo of herself on Facebook in which she is holding a gun.
Dallas and her fiance claim that the photo was taken at a gun range. The photo was adorned with the caption: “She’s my Bonnie and I’m her Clyde.” The college used the caption as a reason to believe that the couple intended to go on an actual crime spree as a tribute to the real-life crime couple. according to the college:
The picture for which Plaintiff was discipline[d] does not contain any message protected by the First Amendment. Instead, it glorifies the criminal acts of an infamous couple who
commit robbery and go on a shooting spree. It is not even clear that Dallas and the male in the picture are at a gun range…
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) published a defense of Dallas last week, arguing that First Coast Technical College abandoned the First Amendment when they chose to punish Dallas over the photo.
FCTC’s action shows what can happen to a student’s life when the college ignores her First Amendment rights. It also sets a dangerous precedent that may end up chilling student speech further down the road: The college is implicitly telling its students that their free speech rights extend only as far as administrators deem appropriate. But that lesson is the antithesis of what the mission of a university is supposed to be — a place that fosters individual expression and peer exchange, not one that shuts it down. FIRE will continue to monitor any updates on the case.
Breitbart News reported in May that Dallas had been suspended from the college over the photograph. Shortly thereafter, Dallas filed a lawsuit, alleging that the college had violated her constitutional speech rights. That lawsuit is still pending.
Stay tuned to Breitbart News for more updates on this story.
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