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| The controversy around the expulsion of two University of Oklahoma students continues. Image: Shutterstock |
Controversy continues to swirl around the expulsion of two
University of Oklahoma students after a video surfaced showing them leading a
group of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members in a racist chant.
Experts are now questioning whether or not the
expulsion was legal, due to the freedom of speech allowed by the First
Amendment. In fact, alumni of the
fraternity have hired a lawyer, Oklahoma attorney Stephen Jones, to consult on
potential future legal actions.
The issue is trickier than it appears on the surface. Was it acceptable for President David Boren
to expel students Parker Rice and Levi Pettit purely because they failed to
follow the school’s code of conduct? Or,
by doing so, did Boren ignore their Constitutional right to freedom of speech?
“David
Boren’s zero tolerance on campus for particular kinds of speech is not only a
violation of the First Amendment, it does little to address the real problem of
racism,” said
OSU media law professor Dr. Joey Senat.
“The
courts are very clear that hateful, racist speech is protected by the First
Amendment,” agreed
Erwin Chemerinsky, a constitutional scholar and dean of the law school at
the University of California, Irvine.
Other
experts aren’t as sure. Daria
Riothmayer, a law professor at the University of Southern California with
experience regarding the intersection of law and racism, said that a plausible
argument could be made that the situation caused a “material disruption” to the
university’s community. “The entire
university now has to repudiate the bigotry of a fraternity,” she
said, and for black students, “it’s a massive disruption.”
At
this point, no legal action has been taken.
The fraternity’s lawyer has only reported that he’s looking into the issue
and that his clients are concerned about the safety of the remaining fraternity
students on campus, who have received death threats and verbal abuse.
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