Four students who took part in a racist group chat last year are suing the president of Florida International University (FIU), alleging that her efforts to investigate and potentially sanction the students’ conduct runs afoul of the First Amendment.
The four students who attend the Miami-area university filed an amended federal complaint April 1 in the Southern District of Florida that seeks to enjoin President Jeanette Nunez from pursuing charges for what they characterize as off-campus private speech. The complaint also seeks unspecified damages and attorney fees.
On April 7, however, Judge Cecillia Altonaga denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction without prejudice, meaning the motion could be refiled. Altonaga noted that the student conduct cases at FIU are ongoing and have yet to be resolved.
The university received reports about the chat group in the fall of last year that involved plaintiffs Abel Carvajal, Dariel Gonzalez, Ethan Ratchkauskas and Dante Mojena, according to the complaint. FUI then began investigating whether the students’ conduct violated the university’s Student Conduct and Honor Code and non-discrimination rules, according to the complaint, which indicated that 1,200 pages of evidence have been collected.
The lawsuit acknowledges that the group chat in question contained “crude, offensive and controversial remarks,” including racist comments and words that prompted accusations about an intent to commit harm. But the complaint argues that the students’ views represent protected speech.
“The disciplinary charges are based solely on legally protected speech, and … FIU’s actions therefore constitute content- and viewpoint-based punishment of protected expression in violation of the First Amendment,” the lawsuit states.
In an email to the Florida Record, the plaintiffs’ attorney, Anthony Sabatini, said, “FIU violated the Constitution and must cease what they are doing immediately.”
FIU’s disciplinary actions against the students are chilling their speech as well as the speech of other students on campus, according to the complaint.
“Plaintiffs face ongoing disciplinary proceedings, sanctions up to suspension or expulsion, reputational injury, academic interruptions and restrictions on participation in university life,” the lawsuit says. “… The university has placed holds on all of (the) plaintiffs’ academic records, preventing them from graduating.”
In a letter that FIU sent to plaintiff Ratchkauskas, the university accused the student of making the statement, “If she doesn’t she just has to Swiss cheese the professor at that point” and going on to explain that the phrase “Swiss cheese” means “putting holes in them via means of firearm.” Other statements included “let’s go blow up dolphin mall with an explosive device or something” – which FIU said was evidence of a threat to do harm.
The lawsuit, however, takes a different view.
“These remarks were made in a humorous and hyperbolic context, and no student or participant understood them as literal statements; rather, they were recognized as exaggerated, over-the-top language intended in jest,” the complaint says.
Statements attributed to other plaintiffs included “Avoid the coloreds like the plague” and “I would never marry a Jew.”
The lawsuit argues that Nunez’s actions have caused the students to suffer a constitutional injury, reputational and academic harm, and emotional distress.
