After joking on Facebook about how he disliked being forced to use a debit card at his community college, a Hickory, N.C. student has been suspended for two semesters. Marc Bechtol’s comment was along the lines of him being forced to use the debit card which he didn’t want to do, so that he could activate his grant money. The action opened up his email to spam.
The viewpoint of Catawba Valley Community College, in which Bechtol attended, was that they found it “disturbing” and found it as a threat of “malicious action” toward the college.
After contacting the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education to protect his right to free speech, Bechtol is still showing up for class even though he has been suspended and waiting to hear the status or for an update.
