College Subjected Student to 'Extended Inquisition' Into Her Political Beliefs, Lawyer Claims

[Auburn85 434]

https://reason.com/2023/04/25/college-subjected-student-to-extended-inquisition-into-her-political-beliefs-lawyer-claims/?itm_source=parsely-api

 

 

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Emma Camp | 4.25.2023

 

Morgan Bettinger was a rising senior at the University of Virginia when she was accused by a popular student activist of making violent threats to a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020. Even though an investigation by the university later cleared her of any wrongdoing, Bettinger still received a litany of punishments.

Last week, on the same day that Reason published an investigation into the story, Bettinger's lawyer released a draft lawsuit against the university, arguing that the school violated her First Amendment rights and committed due process violations in sanctioning her. The lawsuit has not yet been filed.

On July 17, 2020, Morgan Bettinger was driving home from work when she found that the road ahead was blocked by a large public works truck, with several dozen protesters gathering on the street behind it. The draft suit states that when she got out of her car to investigate, the truck driver initiated a casual conversation with her, during which Bettinger quipped something to the effect of, "It's a good thing you're here otherwise they could be made speed bumps." The draft suit states that once the conversation was over, Bettinger walked around the truck and took a photograph of the protest.

As Bettinger began walking back to her car, protesters began taking an interest in her, following her to her car and shouting, taunting, and filming her. A few minutes later, another UVA student, prominent activist Zyahna Bryant, sent out several tweets claiming that Bettinger had driven around a series of police barricades and "approached protesters in Charlottesville and told us that we would make 'good speed bumps.'"

However, the draft lawsuit contends that "Bryant did not personally hear Ms. Bettinger's comments to the truck driver" and that "Bryant first learned of the speed bump comment from a third party." Regardless, Bryant's claims stoked student outrage, receiving over 1,000 retweets and leading to a flurry of calls for students to lobby the administration to expel Bettinger.

In the months that followed, Bettinger would be subject to a litany of investigations into her alleged conduct. The first investigation, from the University Judiciary Committee (UJC), UVA's completely student-run dispensary system, found Bettinger guilty of "threatening the health or safety" of UVA students and sanctioned her to do 50 hours of community service, meet three times with a professor meant to teach her about "police community relations," write an apology letter to Bryant, and expulsion in abeyance (meaning that Bettinger could continue her schooling, but if she was found guilty of a similar offense again, she would likely be expelled.)

But despite punishing her, the UJC's student jury also seemed to agree with Bettinger's version of what she said, writing, "You yourself acknowledged saying 'it's a good thing you are here because, otherwise, these people would have been speed bumps.' Given the tragic events of August 12 and the context in which you uttered these words, you disregarded Charlottesville's violent history."

"UJC credited Ms. Bettinger with her own language…thus acknowledging that her statement was directed to the driver rather than any of the protesters and uttered in the context of a political arena," the draft suit states. "UJC did not find that Ms. Bettinger either actually threatened or intended to threaten physical harm to Bryant or any of the protesters, only that her words posed a risk."

Thus, the student jury had no legal grounds to punish her, as UVA is a public university barred from punishing students for First Amendment–protected speech, which Bettinger's comment clearly was. "At best, her comment was an acknowledgment that the police, who were the target of the protest, still cared enough about the safety of the protesters to position a dump truck to block the road," the draft suit states. "At worst, Ms. Bettinger's remark constituted political hyperbole protected by the Constitution."

After her student-run trial, Bettinger was also subject to a second investigation, this time from UVA's Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights (EOCR), which considered claims by Bryant that Bettinger had harassed Bryant on the basis of her race.

The draft lawsuit claims that, during the EOCR investigation, Bettinger—who is openly pro-police—was subject to an "extended inquisition into her views and opinions of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement," bringing concerns that investigators were biased against her.

Bettinger's counsel raised a formal objection to the line of questioning. "Anyone evaluating the allegations against Morgan must not consciously or unconsciously make decisions based on how closely Morgan's views on BLM (or any related topic) align with their own…. Moreover, the BLM movement is one of the most prominent issues in the public discourse today. People have a wide array of views on it. Questioning Morgan on her views on it chills speech since it suggests that her guilt or innocence, penalty or lack thereof, will be contingent in some way on her expressing a favored political view."

The draft lawsuit also reveals the considerable emotional impact of Bryant's allegations and the subsequent investigations through extended excerpts from one of Bettinger's EOCR interviews.

"I have sleepless nights and I've had to be prescribed medication to be able to sleep anymore," Bettinger told investigators. "I had to up my therapy to speak with my counselor because this had just gotten so much. It finally broke me a little bit ago. It's just not okay for someone to get away with to keep doing this."

Despite concerns of bias, the EOCR investigation—which finished in June 2021—ultimately cleared Bettinger, not only finding that she did not harass Bryant, but also uncovering serious flaws in Bryant's allegations. Contrary to Bryant's claims that she personally witnessed Bettinger threaten protesters, the EOCR investigation concluded that it was "more likely than not" that Bryant never heard Bettinger make a "speed bumps" remark at all.

"EOCR addressed each of Bryant's allegations and concluded that each was either unsupported by the evidence or demonstrably false," the draft suit states. "EOCR arrived at a conclusion that should have been obvious from the face of Bryant's allegations in the beginning; namely, that her comment to the truck driver about speed bumps was not threatening on its face and was thus speech protected by the Constitution."

Bettinger and her legal counsel viewed the results of the EOCR investigation as an exoneration and sent a letter to UVA President Jim Ryan—later followed by a letter from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)—demanding that Bettinger's sanctions be expunged. However, the school refused to act, claiming that it would be inappropriate to interfere with a student-run investigation.

"Ms. Bettinger received a fair hearing and review," Ryan wrote in an August 2021 response letter to FIRE, "As President, it would be inappropriate for me to intervene in a case that has been properly adjudicated."

Last Thursday, Charles Weber, Bettinger's lawyer, released the draft lawsuit against the university claiming that the school violated her First Amendment and due process rights.

The university "upheld the retaliation against Ms. Bettinger for her unpopular but constitutionally protected political expression," the draft lawsuit states. "Although Bryant initiated the process of retaliation through her social media postings and formal complaints with EOCR and UJC, the active and ongoing actions of the Defendants chilled her speech, adversely impacted her personal safety and emotional/mental health, upheld her punishment and caused the long-term harm to her reputation."

"The Defendants imposed limitations on appeal that were unwarranted and inconsistent with due process of law," the draft suit continues, adding that Ryan, "the one named Defendant with both the power and responsibility to exercise discretionary judgment to correct the legal errors of his subordinates and to ensure discipline of students in compliance with the law, was negligent in the performance of his duties."

The draft lawsuit comes almost three years after the original incident. While it has not yet been filed, Weber tells Reason that he intends to file the suit if university officials again refuse to expunge Bettinger's sanctions.

"We pray that the officials of the University of Virginia will do the right thing," he says.

 

 

[DKW 86 7,475]

This is why we need to stop with all the vitriol and simply listen to what is actually taking place. This was an offhand comment and nothing else.

To have been subjected to any of the "process" is utter BS. UVA needs to pay AGAIN, apparently.

 

[Auburn85 434]

https://dailyprogress.com/news/local/crime-courts/uva-karen-expelled-to-avoid-media-firestorm-over-football-game-protest-lawsuit-suggests/article_39a0b63e-3868-11ee-95b2-07710c9bcf0b.html

 

 

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UVa 'Karen' expelled to avoid media firestorm over football game protest, lawsuit suggests

Faith Redd

August 19

A White University of Virginia alumna who was expelled after she was accused of threatening a Black Women Matter protest in 2020 — which a school investigation later found she likely did not do — has alleged in a lawsuit that not only did UVa’s then-dean of students “purposefully tamper” to make an example out of her but that a student jury found her guilty in the early morning hours before a UVa football game under pressure from a student-led protest that threatened to stop the game.

Morgan Bettinger filed a lawsuit dated July 28 against the UVa Board of Visitors, President Jim Ryan and former Dean of Students Allen Groves in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia.

A previous draft of that lawsuit circulated earlier this year is 52 pages long. The lawsuit filed in July is 104.

 

In both, Bettinger’s counsel details how on July 17, 2020, Bettinger’s schoolmate Zyahna Bryant — a local activist who gained widespread attention for her successful petition to tear down Charlottesville’s Confederate monuments — was participating in a Black Women Matter protest organized by Charlottesville Beyond Policing.

According to Bryant’s own account, Bettinger arrived at the protest which was occurring in the middle of the street and “told us that we would make ‘good speedbumps.’” Bryant shared video footage of the moments after the alleged incident on Twitter, led an email campaign urging students to “demand that Morgan face consequences for her actions and that UVA stop graduating racists” and filed a formal complaint with the student-led University Judiciary Committee.

 

That committee found Bettinger guilty of “threatening the health or safety of students,” arguing that her alleged words carried significant weight considering the deadly car attack that took place in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017, during the Unite the Right rally-turned-riot. She was expelled in abeyance — which allowed her to continue her schooling but with a demerit in her file — and instructed to perform 50 hours of community service, meet with public policy professor Brian Williams to “discuss the history of police-community relations” and write an apology letter to Bryant.

 

Bryant has declined to comment to The Daily Progress on the matter since the draft lawsuit began circulating and she herself became a target of online harassment.

According to Bettinger’s account, when she encountered the protest she told a truck driver blocking the road, “It’s a good thing that you are here, because otherwise these people would have been speed bumps.” Bettinger is the daughter of a policeman, who died of cancer in 2014, and is admittedly pro-police, but she claims she was misheard by protesters and taken out of context.

 

While Bettinger has said she is not ignorant of “Charlottesville’s violent history” or the tragedy of “A12,” it is not the first thing that comes to mind when she hears the date Aug. 12.

“While some people may drive through Charlottesville, or downtown Charlottesville, or walk ‘the Lawn,’ and recall those horrible events, many people in the community and visitors to it simply do not,” her lawsuit reads. “When Morgan hears the date ‘August 12,’ she thinks of one thing and one thing only — the day her father died.”

 

 

An inquiry later conducted by UVa’s Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights would find that Bettinger’s narrative was the more likely case and that her remarks, whatever they were, were “not clearly threatening.”

The decision of the judiciary committee, however, still stood. Bettinger was still expelled. That expulsion, she claims, remains a stain on her record and has interfered with her future education and employment opportunities.

Bettinger’s lawsuit argues that the university bent to the will of a nationally known Black activist at the expense of a White student, ultimately infringing on Bettinger’s free speech.

 

“President Jim Ryan knew, unequivocally, that Morgan Bettinger’s speech was free and protected under the First Amendment, that Morgan had been wronged, and that he was intentionally committing the University to violate those sacred rights,” reads the suit.

 

 

Bettinger is seeking redress in the form of a declaratory judgment, injunctive relief, attorneys’ fees and costs as well as compensatory and punitive damages.

“On the evening of July 16, 2020, the mob came for Morgan Bettinger,” the suit reads. “Less than forty-eight hours later and over the course of the next thirteen months and beyond, the Defendant University of Virginia and its most senior leaders — leaders who owed Morgan a duty to protect her ‘best interests’ — would, without any legal or evidentiary basis, join in, augment, amplify, and then take the lead in a racially motivated campaign to ruin Morgan Bettinger.”

One of those leaders was singled out in Bettinger’s suit.

 

In 2020, Allen Groves was the dean of students at UVa. He left the school almost exactly a year after Bettinger’s confrontation with protesters to serve as senior vice president of student experience at Syracuse University in New York.

 

Groves was physically assaulted on Aug. 11, 2017, during the White supremacist-led torch-lit march through UVa Grounds before the planned Unite the Right rally the next day. Groves was seen being struck in the arm by one of the torches, according to Daily Progress reporting from the time. That incident left him “deeply scarred,” according to Bettinger’s suit.

The suit presents Bettinger as a scapegoat.

It alleges Groves “personally initiated a complaint, himself and on his own behalf, against Morgan with the UJC” that “teed” her up for trial. Groves later participated as a witness against Bettinger during that trial, according to the suit.

Her counsel argues that the school was also seeking to prevent a media firestorm.

The student jury handed down its guilty verdict at 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 26, 2020. Later that day, UVa was scheduled to play Duke University in a football game at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville.

 

Bettinger’s counsel claims it has evidence that Bryant was prepared to lead students in a protest that could have shut down the game in front of national television crews.

“The University Police, who would have been required to alert the President of the University and the Dean of Students, received credible reports that if the University failed to convict and expel Morgan Bettinger, the teenager [Bryant] and her followers planned to riot, with plans to disrupt and cause mayhem on Grounds. The threat was specific: the targeted event was a football game against Duke University which would be a major University event, assumed to be nationally televised, in the University’s Scott Stadium. The details included the activists’ plans to have masses of protesters lie down in front of Duke University’s team buses, preventing them from entering and traversing Grounds to the stadium, and thereby causing untold problems and potential economic damages to the two universities and hundreds of involved players and other participants,” the suit reads.

The UVa Police Department said it has “no records” of any such threats after The Daily Progress filed a request for documentation via the Freedom of Information Act.

UVa officials have declined to comment to The Daily Progress, which is not abnormal in the midst of pending litigation.

Bettinger, who has said she has kept a low profile since the events of 2020, was unavailable for comment, her counsel told The Daily Progress. Bettinger has previously granted interviews with libertarian magazine Reason.

“We refer to the file-stamped Complaint, which we believe speaks for itself,” Bettinger’s counsel said in an email.

 

 

[Auburn85 434]

https://reason.com/2023/09/15/morgan-bettigners-accuser-has-a-deal-with-dove-thats-no-reason-to-boycott/

 

 

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Morgan Bettigner's Accuser Has a Deal With Dove. That's No Reason To Boycott.

Emma Camp | 9.15.2023

 

University of Virginia (UVA) student activist Zyahna Bryant is back in the news again, after facing backlash over a partnership with Dove. The 22-year-old announced in August that she was working with the soap company to promote "fat liberation."

Following coverage from the New York Post, the Daily Mail, and even a comment from Elon Musk, calls to boycott the company have been growing, and "#BoycottDove" was trending on Twitter as of Friday afternoon.

It's not surprising that Bryant would be an online target. As Reason revealed in an April investigation, she made serious accusations that ruined a young woman's life without sufficient evidence. But canceling her is still both wrong and unhelpful—as are nearly all instances of cancel culture in action.

In 2020, Bryant publicly accused fellow student Morgan Bettinger of telling a group of Black Lives Matter protesters that they would "make good speedbumps"—sparking a social media firestorm that resulted in widespread calls for the university to expel Bettinger.

For her own part, Bettinger has consistently claimed that she never spoke to protestors, instead saying that a truck driver who had been sent to block the road during the protest had begun a casual conversation with her, during which she quipped something to the effect of "it's a good thing that you are here, because otherwise, these people would have been speed bumps."

A university investigation later found "insufficient evidence" for Byrant's claims, even concluding that it was "more likely than not" that Byrant never even heard Bettinger make a "speed bumps" remark at all. Despite the inquiry's results, the university allowed Bettinger to be punished anyway, holding to the results of an earlier student-run tribunal which expelled Morgan in abeyance and forced her to complete a litany of other sanctions. The previous student tribunal found Bettinger guilty of "threatening" UVA students, despite appearing to agree with Bettinger's facially nonthreatening version of events.

Last month, Bettinger filed a formal lawsuit against the university, claiming that school officials violated her First Amendment rights and that administrators "purposefully tampered" with the numerous investigations into Bettinger's conduct to ensure she would be punished for obviously protected speech.

"Despite their personal knowledge that multiple University investigators had concluded that Morgan was innocent of the charges against her," the lawsuit reads, "[University officials] persecuted, prosecuted, and punished Morgan Bettinger."

Now that Bryant has received a Dove sponsorship, those outraged by her baseless accusations against Bettinger have been fomenting an internet firestorm by attempting a Bud Light–style boycott of the company's products.

Reason has consistently argued that internet mobs are a terrible way to find the truth and get justice for those who have been wronged. What's happening here is blatant cancel culture—a concerted effort to destroy someone's personal and professional prospects over a single past incident or comment without any capacity for forgiveness.

 

Witnessing how an internet pile-on utterly shredded a young woman's life and reputation offers little evidence that these kinds of outrage campaigns can do any good. If anything, this mob will only leave Bryant feeling justifiably aggrieved. While Bryant did far more than mere political wrongthink—she actively lobbied for another student's expulsion and displayed little remorse once the reality of the situation emerged—viciously attacking her (or mounting a boycott of a soap company) won't help Bettinger repair her tarnished reputation.

In fact, if attempts to boycott Dove work, they will distract from what actually happened to Bettinger. They turn her story into a culture-war meltdown and lump her in with online trolls who consider attacking someone's physical appearance a key component of political discourse. 

Yes, Zyahna Bryant thoughtlessly ruined Morgan Bettinger's life by slinging baseless allegations in the public square. But getting to the truth of what happened that day in July 2020—and getting justice for Bettinger—won't be accomplished by a nasty, tribalistic internet mob. 

 

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[CoffeeTiger 5,198]

Conservatives generally aren't as fired up about soap and personal hygiene as they are about alcohol, so I doubt this boycott has much of an effect. 

[Auburn85 434]

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2024/02/u-va-alumna-settles-first-amendment-lawsuit-against-the-university-after-her-expulsion-in-abeyance

 

 

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U.Va. alumna settles First Amendment lawsuit against the University after her expulsion in abeyance

 

By Jackie Bond

February 28, 2024

 

Morgan Bettinger, Class of 2021 College alumna, settled a lawsuit against the University after being sanctioned by the University Judiciary Committee for a 2020 comment concerning Black Lives Matter protestors blocking traffic in downtown Charlottesville. The lawsuit alleged that President Jim Ryan, the University Board of Visitors and former Dean of Students Allen Groves violated her free speech and due process rights by permitting and assisting in her sanctions. 

While the details of the settlement have not yet been publicized, according to an email from University Communications Deputy Spokesperson Bethanie Glover, the lawsuit “was resolved by a mutual and amicable agreement and dismissed following a joint motion by both parties.”

Bettinger’s legal team filed a lawsuit against the University in July on the grounds that the University failed to protect her first amendment right to freedom of speech by permitting her expulsion by the UJC. The lawsuit also contended that the University further violated Bettinger’s due process rights by failing to retry Bettinger’s expulsion case after a later inquiry by the Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights found Bettinger not guilty of the charges she was convicted for. 

“The Defendant University of Virginia and its most senior leaders — leaders who owed Morgan a duty to protect her ‘best interests’ — would, without any legal or evidentiary basis, join in, augment, amplify, and then take the lead in a racially motivated campaign to ruin Morgan Bettinger,” the lawsuit said. 

The incident for which the University expelled Bettinger occurred when Bettinger was driving in downtown Charlottesville July 17, 2020, when she was stopped by a dump truck blocking the road. Bettinger exited her car to ask the truck driver what was going on, to which the driver responded that he was protecting Black Women Matter protestors from oncoming traffic. 

According to Bettinger, she jokingly said to the driver “It’s a good thing you’re here, because otherwise these people would have been speed bumps.” Zyahna Bryant, Charlottesville-area activist and Class of 2023 alumna, was part of the protesting group. She claimed she heard Bettinger say a different statement — that the protestors “would make good speed bumps.” She then posted Bettinger's alleged statements on Twitter, and the post quickly went viral. 

The social media campaign criticizing Bettinger’s alleged statements, spearheaded in large part by Bryant, led to Bettinger being reported to the UJC. The Committee heard a trial on the case and Bettinger was found guilty of “threatening the health and safety” of University students and expelled in abeyance, meaning that she could remain at the University but received a demerit on her academic record. 

Bettinger was also sanctioned to 50 hours of community service, to meet with Bryan Williams, professor at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, to learn about the history of police-community relations and to write an apology letter to Bryant. 

According to the Daily Progress, the U.Va. Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights later found Bettinger not guilty of the charges the UJC expelled her for, citing a lack of sufficient evidence, but the demerit remained on her record. Following these findings, both Bettinger and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which has the mission of defending free speech on college and university campuses through advocacy and legal defense, sent letters to President Ryan requesting the UJC sanctions be expunged. Ryan refused to do so, stating that Bettinger’s conviction was legitimate. 

“Ms. Bettinger received a fair hearing and review by both the UJC and the Judicial Review Board ('JRB'),” Ryan said in a letter to FIRE. “I have no basis to find that the investigative or adjudicative process was infected with significant procedural errors that would warrant expungement.”

The UJC also declined to comment on the settlement.