{"id":1544672,"date":"2022-07-08T13:34:17","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T17:34:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1544672"},"modified":"2022-07-08T13:34:26","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T17:34:26","slug":"an-art-student-was-expelled-for-retweeting-a-sexually-explicit-cartoon-on-their-personal-pseudonymous-twitter-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/an-art-student-was-expelled-for-retweeting-a-sexually-explicit-cartoon-on-their-personal-pseudonymous-twitter-account\/","title":{"rendered":"An Art Student Was Expelled For Retweeting A Sexually Explicit Cartoon On Their Personal, Pseudonymous Twitter Account"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fan-art-student-was-expelled-for-retweeting-a-sexually-explicit-cartoon-on-their-personal-pseudonymous-twitter-account%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1544672&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>An art student retweeted a sexually explicit Japanese-style cartoon \u2014 known as hentai \u2014 on their personal, pseudonymous Twitter account and was subsequently investigated and expelled.<\/p>\n<p>Ash Mikkelsen was an incoming student at Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) until another student complained about an image Mikkelsen retweeted (the image in question is not the same one at the top of this article). Mikkelsen didn\u2019t tag the university or anyone from the university community in the tweet, and didn\u2019t send it to anyone connected to the university \u2014 it was simply a retweet.<\/p>\n<p>A student who saw the retweet complained to KCAI administrators, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefire.org\/kansas-city-art-institute-expels-student-for-retweeting-sexual-art\/\">reported<\/a>, and the school opened an investigation, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefire.org\/kansas-city-art-institute-notice-of-charges-to-ash-mikkselsen-june-15-2022\/\">claiming<\/a> Mikkelsen violated the Student Code of Conduct. Assistant Dean of Students Joe Timson sent Mikkelsen a letter on June 15 wanting to speak about \u201ccontent on social media that has contributed to the development of a hostile environment and reflects potential Sexual Harassment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mikkelsen met with Timson that same day to discuss the allegations. Just 14 days later, on June 29, Timson informed Mikkelsen they were being expelled. Mikkelsen, according to FIRE, was given no meaningful chance to dispute the allegations, but was given five days to appeal. Mikkelsen sought help from FIRE\u2019s legal defense fund in an effort to overturn the expulsion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis experience has left me feeling angry, but more importantly, disappointed,\u201d Mikkelsen said in a statement posted by FIRE. \u201cI\u2019m fighting back to show that it\u2019s not acceptable to punish students for what they say, do, or make \u2014 even if the administration doesn\u2019t like what that protected activity encompasses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>FIRE noted that KCAI expelled Mikkelsen for a non-Title IX hostile environment sexual harassment offense under its Student Code of Conduct, but that no definition of sexual harassment exists in that code. Further, the organization noted, Mikkelsen\u2019s tweets don\u2019t meet the legal definition of sexual harassment, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thefire.org\/what-does-davis-harassment-look-like-heres-an-example\/\">says<\/a> discriminatory conduct must be \u201cso severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive, and that so undermines and detracts from the victims\u2019 educational experience, that the victim-students are effectively denied equal access to an institution\u2019s resources and opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Retweeting hentai wouldn\u2019t meet that definition, FIRE insisted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cArt history is full of censors, but today KCAI is the one holding the fig leaf,\u201d FIRE Program Officer Sabrina Conza said in a statement. \u201cInstead of protecting artistic expression \u2014 as it promises to do \u2014 the art institute pried into Ash\u2019s personal life in order to find a reason to be offended and then concocted a scheme to expel them. People are offended by all sorts of artistic expression. But offense alone doesn\u2019t justify censorship \u2014 especially by an art school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>KCAI is a private university, so it\u2019s not bound by the same constitutional protections as a public university, but as FIRE noted, the school is morally and contractually required to uphold its own policies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a veteran and as an American, I\u2019m protective of my rights \u2014 they are something my friends fought and died for,\u201d said Mikkelsen, a Marine Corps veteran. \u201cSo for KCAI to so frivolously tread on them leaves me worried for the future of other artists like me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An art student retweeted a sexually explicit Japanese-style cartoon \u2014 known as hentai \u2014 on their personal, pseudonymous Twitter account and was subsequently investigated and expelled. Ash Mikkelsen was an incoming student at Kansas City Art Institute (KCAI) until another student complained about an image Mikkelsen retweeted (the image in question is not the same &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":1547180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1544672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1544672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1547180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1544672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1544672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1544672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}