Students threatened for calling Hamas 'terrorist,' illegal immigration 'a cancer' get settlement

Calling Hamas a "terrorist" organization, illegal immigration a "cancer" and people who illegally immigrate "illegal aliens" is no longer punishable speech at taxpayer-funded schools in California and North Carolina, under settlements to resolve litigation this month.

In a third quadrant of America, Eastern Maine Community College didn't wait for litigation before replacing a professor who called a Christian student a hypocrite for defending the Second Amendment in a debate assignment, and twice ordered her to write a new paper, after dozens of state Republican lawmakers demanded the professor's "immediate" firing.

The Coast Community College District paid Young Americans for Freedom student leaders at Golden West College, including a naturalized U.S. citizen from Iran, a symbolic $17.91 each and nearly $26,000 in legal fees, less than two months after their lawyers at the Institute for Free Speech challenged the school's speech policies and enforcement.

Days before the Inter-Club Council officially recognized the YAF chapter this spring, following five months of ICC resistance based on its conservative views, Director of Student Life Stephanie Smallshaw gave Matin Samimiat and Annaliese Hutchings a "courtesy warning" in response to complaints about messages on their "Change My Mind" whiteboard.

During February and March recruiting events, they had posted sentences including "Illegal immigration is a cancer upon any society in the world" and “Hamas is a terrorist organization and they must be wiped from the face of the Earth."

Smallshaw threatened punishment if they kept writing such statements, saying the cancer metaphor "dehumanizes a group of people" and "can also be harmful to people who have experienced cancer with their loved ones," the lawsuit argues.

The Hamas statement can "incite violence and encourage the killing of a group of people," and because "some students here believe Hamas is not a terrorist organization," YAF can't use that term for the U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, Smallshaw said. She wouldn't tell them what language to avoid to fend off future punishment, the suit says.

Despite the specificity of the quotes in the lawsuit, an IFS spokesperson told Just the News the students weren't recording when they met with Smallshaw.

Students kept protesting YAFs recognition at subsequent ICC meetings, accusing the club of "creating a hostile environment for people of color" and "being hateful towards LGBT people," and Smallshaw encouraged them to report "hateful behavior" to her, YAF said.

The settlement binds the district to make changes to the student code of conduct, starting with formally repealing the prohibition on hateful behavior.

It will also replace the clause "any act which purposefully demeans, degrades, or disgraces any person" in the "Infliction of Mental Harm" code section with the sentence: “Speech or other expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment, including the expression of social, ideological, or political viewpoints, does not violate this provision.”

The settlement was finalized July 17 and the case formally dismissed July 18 but only made public this week by IFS. The Orange County district has already been repeatedly accused of infringing conservative speech and expression at its Orange Coast College.

Smallshaw was still listed as GWC director of student life as of Tuesday. The office of President Meridith Randall and the district's lawyers did not respond to queries on any conditions required of Smallshaw in response to the allegations, such as retraining on her First Amendment obligations, on which the settlement is silent.

"Students shouldn’t have to try to guess what speech is allowed by college administrators or fear punishment for taking a political stance" and engaging in "robust political debate" on campus, IFS vice president for litigation Alan Gura said in a statement.

IFS also sought $17.91 in damages for Portland State University professor Bruce Gilley in its successful lawsuit against the University of Oregon for censoring his comment "All men are created equal" on its diversity office X post. IFS won much larger legal fees last month in that case, which dates to 2022.

'Illegal alien' is like 'the n-word'

North Carolina's Davidson Board of Education paid former Central Davidson High School student Christian McGhee $20,000 to settle his lawsuit in response to punishment for asking whether his English teacher's reference to "aliens" in a vocabulary lesson meant "space aliens or illegal aliens who need green cards," The News and Observer reported.

The 16-year-old had been in the restroom when the lesson started, and teacher Haley Hill responded to his question by saying, "Watch your mouth." McGhee received a three-day suspension the next day for "using/making (a) racially motivated comment which disrupts class."

Seeking a preliminary injunction, McGhee had introduced excerpts of a recording in which a school administrator equated "illegal alien" to "the n-word" and texts by school board members to the community intended to "malign Christian and his family," his lawyers said.

The district agreed to remove "false references to alleged racial bias" from McGhee's record, the Liberty Justice Center said July 2, without disclosing the reported payment to its client to cover McGhee's private school. (The settlement was filed under seal.)

"The parties will also issue a joint statement that includes an apology from the Davidson County Board of Education and an acknowledgment of a former board member’s inappropriate response to the incident – a response that included false statements which compounded the harm to Christian," LJC said. 

LJC sent Just the News the unsealed settlement with the $20,000 payment when the court approved it Tuesday. The district didn't answer a query for its comment on the settlement.

'Do not worry about doing' removed professor's assignments

Carol Lewandowski already had a reputation for politicizing her classroom at Eastern Maine Community College when she mocked student Katherine Parker's essay on gun rights for an assignment responding to an editorial, saying it undermined Parker's previous essay on her conversion to Christianity and telling her to write on a different subject.

Emails obtained by The Maine Wire show Lewandowski canceled a virtual class after President Trump's election last fall, telling students she could not "communicate in any way, shape or form." She criticized students who called her "unprofessional" for not respecting "my depression, despair and general disgust" about an election that felt like "a death in the family."

Nearly 50 state GOP lawmakers signed a letter to the presidents of the Maine Community College System and EMCC denouncing Lewandowski's "flippant mockery" of Parker's faith and promising "we will do everything in our power to defend the right to worship everywhere in Maine — including on our college campuses." 

EMCC told News Center Maine it was "currently engaged in taking appropriate steps as required by law and collective bargaining agreement" but declined to comment further on personnel.

Soon after, Lewandowski's colleague Lynne Manion told her students in an email, also obtained by The Maine Wire, she would be "filling in for Carol" the rest of the semester and "do not worry about doing" previous assignments. "I will be providing a new set of activities that will address all the objectives of the course with the time we have remaining."