Hey, there! Log in / Register
UMass student sues over expulsion following post-Super Bowl riot
By adamg on Fri, 02/17/2012 - 8:15am
A student at UMass Amherst is making a federal case out of the way the school promptly expelled him as part of a new crackdown on rioting after sporting events.
In a lawsuit filed yesterday in US District Court in Boston, Cullen Roe charges the expulsion violates his 14th Amendment right to due process because officials ordered him out without even the disciplinary hearing he says is required by the school conduct code.
Cullen Roe was one of more than a dozen students arrested during a melee after the Patriots lost the Super Bowl on Feb. 5, on a campus where such rioting has become a rite after major Boston sporting events.
In his complaint, Roe denied being one of the troublemakers. One plainclothes campus cop, however, claimed that as police moved in to quell the disturbance, Roe yelled "Fuck the police!" and "Bring it on!"
Roe says he was ordered to a dean's office the next morning, given a letter expelling him as "an interim restriction," and told to vacate his dorm room by 6 p.m.
Roe says the expulsion also represents a breach of contract - the university is failing to provide him the education he has already paid it for - and a violation of a state law that requires seven days' notice before expulsion from a dormitory.
In addition to being reinstated as a student, Roe is seeking unspecified "compensatory damages" and legal fees.
The suit says Roe is a resident of Plymouth County.
Free tagging:
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Roe's complaint | 0 bytes |
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
As much as I enjoy seeing
As much as I enjoy seeing overly entitled studentsn actually experience consequences for their actions, it's equally important that UMass follow it's own rules as well as obeying the greater state and federal civil laws.
For a few years, a relative of mine worked at a higher level in the UMass system. The tales of capricious actions on the part of mid-level and higher level leadership at the various campuses was simply scandalous.
This is evidenced in the amount of money paid out in settlements and in the amount of money spent on in-house and outside litigation attorneys. As near as I can tell, there are virtually no consequences for the offending Umass leaders who cost the university and the Commonwealth greatly with there ignorance/disrespect of the law.
It's perfectly believable that someone in a position as an associate dean acted badly/incompetently. It will be interesting to see how quickly this case goes away.
Police State America
We welcome our new jackbooted overloards.
Who cares if crime has been massively down for over a decade - if we can't have wars abroad where we can boss people around, we need more "security forces" and decisive, extrajudical consequences to do it at home.
"Police State"? In our day
"Police State"? In our day this brat would have "fallen" through a plate glass window and tripped on a few flights of stairs prior to booking.
Your Day?
Last time I checked, T'aint your day no more big boss man. We got this high minded thing called Rule of Law, which keeps the social contract up as much as possible. The leadership at My Tax Dollars State University should follow the rules just as much students who have feeble minded reactions to sporting events.
Look on the upside, Rule of Law also keeps us from putting the elderly, like yourself, on ice floes in the early spring. So be happy about it.
While a agree with your post
Your tax dollars fund 45% of UMass:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/art...
"This year's $418 million funding represented about 45 percent of the general budget."
Whats wrong with that?
They also added 5 billion to the local economy in high end jobs in science, biotech and health services from both research and UMass educated alumni.
Funny thing about investments, good ones pay off. And the focus on state higher education has done wonders for us.
Not to say we can't be more efficient. We can. But lets stop with the ideological bullshit that no one in this state besides the Howey mouth breathers believe.
YA OK
The Kid did'nt do much, he was on a roof. They are setting an example and this poor fellow is the one their making it out of.
Crime was high back then
Perhaps it was as high as it was because cops like you were too busy being pathetic criminal thugs beating people up for sexual thrills, and not busy enough doing your actual job?
The point was that
The point was that complaining about process now for actually being an idiot pales in comparison to what used to happen to kids back in the day for merely thumbing their nose at the law.
Kinda
Like you grandmother never having unmarried Sex?
Or the 1950's being EXACTLY what you see on TV reruns?
Dude, you're a joke. Get out of the basement, or read an actual non fiction book. Reality and history is not what Hollywood portrayed it as. That's called entertainment... Fiction.
Based on your sophmoric
Based on your sophmoric remark, I'd guess you really never talked to anyone who lived in Russia under Stalin, Germany under Hitler or China under Mao... to name a few real police states.
two things
1) UMass riots tend to be a bunch of students coming down from their 22 story tower sky rises in Southwest living area, standing around, and singing. Then the cops come and pelt them with pepper balls and tear gas, while dressed in their newest stormtroopers gear, until they go back upstairs. This ain't Greece, and the local rags out there have a field day covering something more interesting that the water level of the Connecticut river, or whats going on in Springfield. Most of the time nothing happens, but every so often the cops really mess someone up and the crowd does violently turn on them for their overbearing tactics.
2) UMass has been notorious in the last 10 years both on cracking down on drinking and any behavior that they thing the media will latch on to and blow up. Umass is safer, both in crime and in what students do, than any time in the last 30. It's downright quiet compared to the Camby era, and students are acting much better than those that came before. Not to mention the school is spending more than ever to control them, with police details and private security. This isn't anything like your fathers UMass back in the day.
I remember a time when the cops didn't react this way, and people would stand around and celebrate until they got bored and went back inside. No media hooplah, no cop harassment and the next day you could only tell from a little bit of celebratory toilet paper in the southwest trees.
We've come a long way. Force must be projected and skulls must be crack, less.... something.
The police seem to have started it
I know one of the kids who was there, and it sounds like you described it. Even MassLive.com, which loved referring to it as a "riot", couldn't come up with any evidence of damage or violence, until the police stepped in with their toys. If I were a college student watching the police treat me that way, like a bunch of rats needing smoke bomb dispersal, of course I'd be upset. Even so, it seems like the students didn't do anything except get upset.
To single out 14 kids out of a group of 1500 is purely arbitrary; to put huge marks against their future education and employment is unconscionable.
sports the opiate of the m asses
Blab blah. Don't understand how sports obsession has taken over this country. Other generations rioted protested about civil rights or war, fair wages, the draft. Now its over a sports team losing or... winning. If we spent as much money on say sending kids to math camp or glorifying rocket scientists like we do sports figures our country's situational may be better off. There are amazing sports arenas in every major city but the pubic school systems are unsafe and graduate kids who cant read. But they have a great football team!