Student Suspended for Saying Man Who Insulted “Needa Get Blasted” + Having Posted (a Year Before) a Shooting Range Video
From Monday’s decision by Judge Joseph Dawson, III (D.S.C.) in Lemoine v. Horry Georgetown Technical College:
In September 2024, Leigha Lemoine … was enrolled in the cosmetology program at Defendant Horry Georgetown Technical College (“HGTC”). On September 5, 2024, while Lemoine was off-campus, Lemoine’s boyfriend’s roommate—who was not an HGTC student—insulted Lemoine. Later that day, Lemoine detailed the incident in a Snapchat group text that included other HGTC students. Therein, Lemoine posted the following:
But naw I was trying to be nice but f[***] that some random ugly a[**] in bread looking f[***] dude called me a b[****] he needa get blasted….
On September 11, 2024, some students at HGTC reported that they “fe[lt] uncomfortable and somewhat unsafe” due to Lemoine’s use of “the term ‘blasted'” in the Snapchat….
School officials met with Lemoine, who “denied [the Snapchat had] anything to do with physical harm” and said she “only intended that the roommate ‘needed to be held accountable and called out for his behavior.'” The officials at first accepted that, but two days later they
discovered a one-year-old video of Lemoine posted on Instagram, in which Lemoine fired a handgun at a target. While firing the handgun, Lemoine was “wearing a western[-]style outfit ….” … Lemoine explained [to school officials] that the gun in the video “did not belong” to her and she had never fired a gun before that time….
Apparently because of the combination of this Snapchat and the year-old video, Lemoine was suspended until Summer 2025, based on a student code provision forbidding “[e]ngaging in any activity that disrupts the educational process of the college, interferes with the rights of others, or adversely interferes with other normal functions and services.”}
Specifically, [a school administrator] wrote that “[i]n today’s climate,” Lemoine’s “failure to disclose the existence of the video” and “use of the term ‘blasted'” created “a significant amount of apprehension related to the presence and use of guns” and that “both employees and students” at HGTC “feel unsafe due to these circumstances.”  …
Lemoine sued, and the court issued a preliminary injunction ordering that she be readmitted. The court concluded that the speech likely didn’t fall into the First Amendment exception for “true threats” of illegal conduct:
First, on September 20, 2024, Defendants agreed with Lemoine’s explanation that “blasted” had a completely nonviolent meaning. If Defendants believed that use of the term “blasted” was objectively threatening, it is unlikely they would have accepted Lemoine’s explanation. But even assuming that “blasted” could have been objectively threatening on September 20, 2024, Lemoine explained that she only int
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