{"id":1986173,"date":"2023-07-30T11:46:02","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T15:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/university-settles-free-speech-lawsuit-with-student-for-80k\/"},"modified":"2023-07-30T11:47:58","modified_gmt":"2023-07-30T15:47:58","slug":"university-settles-free-speech-lawsuit-with-student-for-80k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/university-settles-free-speech-lawsuit-with-student-for-80k\/","title":{"rendered":"University pays $80K to student in free speech lawsuit settlement."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/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%2Funiversity-settles-free-speech-lawsuit-with-student-for-80k%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=1986173&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--><h2>Southern Illinois University\u200b Edwardsville Settles Lawsuit, Protecting Students&#8217; First\u200d Amendment Rights<\/h2>\n<p>The Southern \u2062Illinois University Edwardsville\u2064 (SIUE) recently reached a settlement \u200bin \u2062a lawsuit filed by one of its former students, Maggie DeJong. The \u2062university agreed to pay $80,000 \u2062to DeJong, who was pursuing a master&#8217;s degree in art\u200b therapy counseling at the time.<\/p>\n<p>DeJong&#8217;s journey \u2062took an unexpected turn\u200b when she received\u200b three no-contact orders from the\u2062 school. These orders were issued after three fellow students complained about DeJong expressing her political\u200b opinions, which \u200bwere influenced by her\u200c Christian faith. DeJong openly shared \u200dher \u200cconservative views and posted about \u200dthem on her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-new-acting-attorney-general-jeff-rosen-recently-wrote-an-essay-on-foreign-influence-in-us-elections-this-tells-us-a-little-about-his-knowledge-of-whats-going-on-today\/\" title=\"The New Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen Recently Wrote an Essay on Foreign Influence in US Elections \u2013 This Tells Us A Little About His Knowledge of What\u2019s Going On Today\">social media platforms<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Recognizing the violation of her\u2064 First\u200c Amendment rights, DeJong took\u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republican-canvassers-rescind-their-votes-to-certify-wayne-county-michigan-results\/\" title=\"Republican Canvassers Rescind Their Votes to Certify Wayne County, Michigan, Results\">legal action<\/a> against the university. &#8220;Public universities can&#8217;t punish students for\u2062 expressing their political and religious viewpoints,&#8221; \u200bstated\u200d Alliance \u2064Defending Freedom Legal Counsel\u200b Mathew\u200c Hoffmann. &#8220;Maggie, like every other student, is protected \u2062under the First Amendment to respectfully share her personal beliefs, and university officials were wrong to issue gag\u200c orders \u2063and silence\u2063 her speech.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The settlement not only compensates DeJong but also marks\u200d a significant step towards <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-cancel-culture-is-a-barrier-sen-blackburn-gop-senators-introduce-legislation-defending-free-speech\/\" title=\"EXCLUSIVE: \u2018Cancel Culture Is A Barrier\u2019: Sen. Blackburn, GOP Senators Introduce Legislation Defending Free Speech\">protecting freedom<\/a> of thought and speech\u200b on\u200c campus. \u2063Former Chancellor Randall G. Pembrook, Director Jamie Ball, and Program Director Megan\u2063 A. Robb will \u200bundergo a\u200d First Amendment training session conducted by the \u200dAlliance Defending Freedom. Additionally, the university has committed to revising its policies to ensure that students with diverse political,\u2064 religious, and ideological views feel welcome in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/university-will-pay-christian-student-80k-for-silencing-conservative-views\/\" title=\"Christian student awarded k by university for suppressing conservative opinions.\">art therapy program<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois supported DeJong&#8217;s case, stating, &#8220;DeJong clearly has the \u200bright, as enshrined in\u200d the \u200bFirst Amendment, to express her religious, \u200cpolitical, and social views on her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/university-settles-free-speech-lawsuit-with-student-for-80k\/\" title=\"University pays K to student in free speech lawsuit settlement.\">personal social \u2064media\u200d account<\/a> and to engage in mutual conversations with fellow students regarding those opinions without fear of retaliation from school officials.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>SIUE, with an undergraduate population of fewer \u200cthan 10,000 students in 2021, is \u2063one of two\u2063 campuses in the Southern Illinois \u2062University system. DeJong \u200csuccessfully completed \u200bher degree around the same time the lawsuit was filed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Click here to read more from The Washington Examiner.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville paid $80,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by former student Maggie DeJong. DeJong, studying art therapy counseling, faced three no-contact orders from the school due to complaints about her political opinions. Her Christian faith played a significant role in her actions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1986174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1986173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986173","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1986173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1986174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1986173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1986173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1986173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}