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UofL News: Nursing student sues school over dismissal based upon her blog postings

By Michael Stevens

Here are stories filed on the UofL nursing student Nina Yoder's lawsuit in federal court claiming she was dismissed due to content on her blog. The story was scooped at PageOne Blog on March 5, then followed up with the links to pleadings on March 12, and now the AP is carrying the story. PageOne has links to the complaint filed.

For those interested in following this nursing story, you should/need to subscribe or visit Page One Blog (the same blog that broke the Robert Felner story at the UofL). Here is a follow up story by "jake" at the blog: "The Chronicle for Higher Education has picked up on University of Louisville nursing student Nina Yoder being expelled for a blog post. The Chronicle is academia?s premier publication. Check their story out. They link to us, so we?re kinda stoked. But they did a fairly terrible job with the story and didn?t bother to mention the name of Yoder?s attorney? who deserves a lot of credit for getting to the bottom of this and taking it on for the greater good of higher education. Really, why slam her if you?re not also going to slam the University? [Chronicle]"

The home or front page of Page One is at http://pageonekentucky.com/.

Explosive Problem for the University of Louisville - Nursing Student Expelled for MySpace Blog

March 12th, 2009 from Page One
On Thursday, March 5th we learned that a nursing student at the University of Louisville was expelled because of a post on her MySpace account. And it?s official. A law suit was filed today alleging the University has violated rights to free speech. [click on link for entire post and comments]
Here is the AP story from the Herald Leader by Brett Barroquerre AP Reporter with some extracts:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A woman dismissed from the University of Louisville nursing school because of posts on her personal blog sued Friday, saying her First Amendment rights were violated.

Nina Yoder of Louisville asked U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson to issue an injunction that would allow her to resume classes and graduate in August.

The school dismissed Yoder on March 2, saying in a letter that she violated the school's honor code by posting blog items concerning patient activities and naming the university on her MySpace page. A week later, the university rejected Yoder's written appeal to return to school.

Yoder's attorney, Daniel Canon of Louisville, said the postings are mostly political and don't identify patients.

"There's no allegation that I know of that she disrupted the education process," said Yoder's attorney, Daniel Canon of Louisville. "It's speech that's entirely protected."

University spokesman John Drees declined to address the merits of the lawsuit, calling disciplinary action against students confidential.

* * *

In the lawsuit, Yoder said university administrators cited the gun-related postings and told her "students voiced concerns that lead us to believe you may have a gun." Canon said Yoder didn't have a gun at the time and hasn't ever brought a gun on campus.

Canon said Yoder was told she could not continue in the program because of her blog posts and was considered "persona-non-grata" and withdrawn from classes immediately.

In one post dated Oct. 5, Yoder offered her take on the presidential and vice presidential candidates, at times using obscenities to describe the candidates.

* * *

Canon said by citing the blog as the reason for the dismissal, the university clearly violated his client's free speech rights. But, Canon said, much about his client's situation remains a mystery.

* * *

Full post as published by Kentucky Law Blog on March 17, 2009 (boomark / email).

Kentucky

UofL News: Nursing student sues school over dismissal based upon her blog postings

Explosive Problem for the University of Louisville - Nursing Student Expelled for MySpace Blog

March 12th, 2009 from Page One