Judge advises student to attend school while her complaint is being filed.
After a federal judge late sided with her in a controversy over gun-related comments on her social media accounts, a South Carolina student is permitted to return to school this spring.
Leigha Lemoine can resume her cosmetology lessons as a result of the purchase from U.S. District Judge Joseph Dawson, who was obtained by an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
Lemoine ( pictured ) claimed she was fired from Horry-Georgetown Technical College in the fall after telling a different person to “get blasted” on Snapchat.
When contacted Thursday, university spokesperson Nicole Hyman told The College Fix:” The court’s order does not handle the situation, and the subject continues before the court. The College won’t make any additional comments at this time.
However, the free speech legal business Hearth say the school’s actions are immoral.
No sensible reading of the “blasted” post, according to FIRE colleague Graham Piro, links it to actual violence or to an unrelated movie that was shot a year ago.
First, officials determined the “blasted” opinion was no threatening after Lemoine told them she had no intentions to harm people, according to her petition.
But, two days later, Lemoine learned that she was suspended after school officials found a year-old picture of her firing a gun on social advertising, it states.
Proceed stated in the complaint that the picture, which she afterwards deleted, shows her doing specific training at a friend’s home in 2023.
The movie “had no relation to the blasted comment, but why would she have been required to do so )” ), the school decided to suspend her until the 2025 drop semester”, Piro wrote this year.
In a letter to the school in October, FIRE asked administrators to stop the disciplinary actions and defend Lemoine’s remarks as free conversation.
However, the school “attempted to blast FIRE off”, but Lemoine sued, Piro wrote.
“FIRE understands that HGTC had evaluate actual threats of school gun violence. However, Lemoine is being punished for one offensive reply that the university earlier acknowledged did not violate the student code of conduct, he wrote.
” Yet if Lemoine were referring to weapons with her’ blasted’ comment—which she denies—the post had still amount just to poetic hyperbole, which is protected by the First Amendment”, he wrote.
Recently, a university spokesperson told The Sun News executives make school safety a goal.
According to Hyman,” This suit seeks to challenge the manner in which the College has done this.” ” While the College respects all individuals ‘ rights, including their rights to freedom of expression, the College’s priority is to ensure the well-being and security of the entire campus community”.
MORE: Student files a lawsuit against a college after being suspended for a gun-related social media post
IMAGE: FIRE/Leigha Lemoine
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