ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A University of New Mexico medical student says the school unfairly punished him for a Facebook post that was critical of President Barack Obama’s re-election and compared Democrats to Germans during Nazi rule, according to federal lawsuit.
In court papers filed recently in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, lawyers for Paul Hunt say the student’s free speech rights were violated after the school forced him to revise his profanity-laced, anti-abortion rant in 2012. Despite those revisions, administrators still left negative references about the episode in his academic file, court documents said.
His lawyers said the references could jeopardize his chances at getting into a good residency program after graduation. But attorneys for the University of New Mexico School of Medicine said Hunt violated the school’s social media and professionalism policies. The lawyers say he was given due process to address the complaints.
The school’s respectful campus policy says that the “the right to address issues of concern does not grant individuals license to make untrue allegations, unduly inflammatory statements or unduly personal attacks, or to harass others.”
The school has asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed.
According to the lawsuit, Hunt made the post shortly after Obama was re-elected and faulted Democratic supporters for endorsing abortion rights. “Shame on you for supporting the genocide against the unborn,” Hunt wrote court document said. “You’re WORSE than the Germans during WW2.”
The medical school student also wrote that Obama supporters were “sick, disgusting people,” the lawsuit said.
After the post, another student complained to a faculty members who referred the case over to the School of Medicine’s Committee for Student Promotion and Evaluation, said Hunt’s lawyer, Jeffrey Baker.
The committee threatened Hunt with expulsion unless he revised the Facebook post and participated in a professionalism enhancement program, the lawsuit said.
Hunt is seeking an unspecified amount in damages and legal fees. He also wants all references to the Facebook post deleted from his academic files. Medical student says he was punished for Obama Facebook post.
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