(Image Source: Robert C. Reed/Record)


BY RICHARD LAYCOCK

ANCHOR JIM FLINK

Marc Bechtol, a student at Catawba Valley Community College, was suspended after comments posted on Facebook. Bechtol was irritated after he was issued a CVCC student ID which doubled as a debit card.

WCNC reports after receiving the card Bechtol started getting spam emails from banking institutions - prompting him to speak out on Facebook.


“No coincidence here. I never get credit card offers through that school box, but it happened the day after the card was activated,” Bechtol said.
That ticked him off. So, he took to Facebook.
“Anyone else’s inbox full of spam today? I wonder if they’d like it if we register them with every porn site known to man. Anyone know of any good viruses we could send them?” he posted.
He immediately followed up with this post: “OK, maybe that would be a bit excessive.”

The officials at the university did not take the remarks lightly, Gawker says,

“…the overlords at Catawba Valley called his posts ‘disturbing’, said the posts suggested ‘malicious action’, and found him guilty of violating school policy. Now he's suspended for two semesters and can't even set foot on campus, lest he contaminate other CVCC students with his subversive anti-branding ideology.”

The school policy in question is vague according to critics. Fox Charlotte spoke with a representative for FIRE, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, who said,

“When you have a policy like that, it's impossible to tell just from reading that policy just what exactly is going to get you in trouble…
It's not credible that they thought he was a threat since they didn't pull him out of class until the week after he did it.  So if he was a real threat, why would they have waited that long?”

The charges against Bechtol were dropped at a disciplinary committee meeting but the news is not all good according to the Moral Liberal.

“Despite CVCC’s decision to rescind Bechtol’s punishment, problems remain, as Bechtol is still required to notify the college before using computers on campus. CVCC also has failed to revise the unconstitutional policy it used to punish him and has not rescinded its claim that the Facebook comment was a policy violation.”

Bechtol maintains that the post was satire and protected by free speech.