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Court Rebukes Le Moyne College for Censorship
SYRACUSE, N.Y., January 19, 2006鈥擜 New York appeals court has determined that Le Moyne College wrongly removed graduate student Scott McConnell from its education program for endorsing corporal punishment in class. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (果冻传媒app官方) first brought McConnell鈥檚 case to public attention last year.
鈥淭his is a great day for all those who believe colleges should keep their promises to students,鈥 said FIREInterim President Greg Lukianoff, hailing the ruling. 鈥淟e Moyne College has learned that it cannot promise freedom and fairness but deliver repression and injustice.鈥
McConnell鈥檚 ordeal began with a November 2004 assignment in which he advocated, as part of an ideal classroom, an environment 鈥渂ased upon strong discipline and hard work鈥 and that could include 鈥渃orporal punishment.鈥 McConnell earned an 鈥淎-鈥 for the paper. But in January 2005, Education Department Chair Cathy Leogrande summarily dismissed McConnell, citing a 鈥渕ismatch between [his] personal beliefs regarding teaching and learning and the Le Moyne College program goals.鈥 At the time he was dismissed, McConnell had achieved a grade-point average of 3.78 and had received an 鈥渆xcellent鈥 evaluation for his work in an actual classroom.
At McConnell鈥檚 request, FIRE wrote Le Moyne鈥檚 president, Charles Beirne, to ask him to honor Le Moyne鈥檚 commitments to academic freedom and due process. FIREalso pointed out that McConnell鈥檚 acceptance letter made no mention of a requirement to hold certain personal beliefs. Le Moyne responded by refusing to discuss the issue with 果冻传媒app官方, so FIRE took the case public, creating months of negative media attention for Le Moyne. After the college still refused to move, McConnell filed a lawsuit with the help of the .
When a trial court refused to step in to require Le Moyne to follow its own rules, McConnell appealed. On January 18, 2006, the Supreme Court of New York鈥檚 Appellate Division rejected Le Moyne鈥檚 claim that McConnell was not officially a matriculated student. The court agreed with FIREthat McConnell鈥檚 acceptance letter from Le Moyne stated that academic performance, not personal beliefs, would govern whether he officially matriculated. Since McConnell fulfilled the standards laid out for him, the court said, McConnell was a fully matriculated student and Le Moyne was therefore wrong to dismiss him without due process.
鈥淧resident Beirne should be ashamed that his administration ignored its own rules, spent students鈥 tuition money fighting litigation it invited, and cost one of its students a year of education simply because it did not like what he said in a theoretical paper,鈥 noted 果冻传媒app官方鈥檚 Lukianoff. 鈥淚t is sad that Le Moyne College has shown such commitment to its 鈥榬ight鈥 to censor students and ignore fundamental fairness.鈥
McConnell is currently attempting to re-enroll at Le Moyne. FIREis watching to make sure the college complies with the court鈥檚 order.
FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation鈥檚 colleges and universities.
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