Craig Keefe was a semester away from finishing his studies to be a registered nurse. Like a lot of college students -- like a lot of Americans -- he was on the social networking site Facebook.
But in December, officials at Brainerd's Central Lakes College took exception to some of Keefe's posts on his private Facebook page and kicked him out of school.
Keefe says he wasn't told what the problems were with his posts, nor was he told why or how anything he did violated school policy. Angered, he has taken his complaint to court.
In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Keefe, 37, of Gull Lake, Minn., says he wants to be reinstated in school and wants damages from the defendants, which include the school's president, Larry Lundblad, a vice president, a dean, the head of the nursing program and the chief executive of the state's college system.
Keefe's attorney, Jordan Kushner of Minneapolis, said school officials never gave Keefe a specific explanation for his expulsion and violated the college's published rules by denying him an appeal.
"I get a lot of calls about a lot of civil rights issues, and this one jumped out at me," said Kushner. "There's just such a huge, glaring absence of due process and a violation of his free-speech rights. It seems obvious that Facebook is his business."
Lundblad did not immediately return a call for comment.
The suit claims school officials complained to Keefe that two of his Facebook posts were "disturbing." One
post allegedly used the phrase "stupid bitch" and the other was "a comment about there not being enough whiskey for anger management," the complaint alleges.Kushner said administrators never showed the offending posts to Keefe, nor did they tell him specifically what he is alleged to have done wrong.
"He really doesn't know. That's a big basis for the lawsuit," Kushner said. "It's a public institution. You're entitled to due process before any type of significant action is taken against you. You deserve to know what the charges are and the chance to be heard."
Kushner said Keefe's case differs significantly from that of former University of Minnesota mortuary science student Amanda Tatro, who was disciplined -- but not expelled -- after she posted comments about a cadaver in her anatomy class, and made statements school officials considered threatening.
She sued. Last summer, the Minnesota Supreme Court said the university's action was justified because Tatro violated "narrowly tailored" rules involving standards of professional conduct.
The woman's Facebook posts "fell within a narrow scope of expression that could be regulated because it pertained to her professional work and violated specific professional standards," Kushner said.
He said that differs from Keefe's case because "to the best of our knowledge, his 'offending' Facebook posts had nothing to do with his work as a nurse or nursing student. We do not see how the posts could be any of the school's business, and the reasoning of the Tatro case would support this position."
Central Lakes College has about 6,000 students, and Keefe had been a student there for 3 1/2 years. He is a licensed practical nurse and was enrolled in the Associate Degree Nursing Program to become a registered nurse.
The suit says that on Dec. 3, the head of the school's nursing program, Connie Frisch, called Keefe and asked him to attend a meeting with her and another administrator. Frisch is one of the defendants named in the suit.
"Frisch refused to provide any explanation of the reason for the meeting except that it involved professional boundaries," the suit contends. Keefe followed up with an email, asking for more information, and Frisch replied that she preferred "to review the topic with you in person at that time rather than via phone or email. Please be assured that you do not need to prepare in any way for our meeting."
Keefe went to the meeting Dec. 5. Frisch was there, as was Beth Adams, Central Lake's dean of students, and another defendant named by Keefe. Frisch allegedly confronted him about the purported "stupid bitch" and "whiskey" posts on his Facebook page.
"She then asked Keefe for an explanation, while refusing to let him see the documents," the suit says. "Keefe stated that the comment about whiskey was a joke, that his Facebook account had been hacked a couple of weeks ago and he had tried to delete comments which had been posted."
Frisch then told Keefe they were kicking him out of the program. "She held up a stack of papers which was allegedly Keefe's entire Facebook page and told him she had read the whole page and found it disturbing," the suit says. "Frisch refused to allow Keefe to see the documents."
Two days later, Keefe got a letter telling him he'd been kicked out for "behavior unbecoming of the profession and transgression of professional boundaries," the suit says.
The letter told him he had five days to appeal the expulsion to Kelly McCalla, the school's vice president for academic affairs. McCalla is also named as a defendant.
Keefe appealed, and asked McCalla why he was being expelled. Keefe says in his suit that McCalla told him he'd provide him with the allegedly disturbing Facebook posts, but never did.
The suit contends that on Jan. 2, McCalla left a voicemail message for Keefe saying that his appeal was denied and that there had been no violation of due process. Keefe responded with an email asking for a contested hearing before an administrative law judge, an option provided for under the college's Student Conduct Code.
The suit says that several days later, McCalla left another voicemail for Keefe, telling him he wasn't entitled to a contested case hearing or any further appeal because Keefe "was removed for an 'academic' rather than 'disciplinary' violation under the Conduct Code, and therefore a contested case hearing was inapplicable."
In an interview, Kushner said that because Central Lake's nursing program isn't accredited, Keefe can't transfer his credits to another school to finish his studies and become a registered nurse.
"Unless we get the court to order him back in, that degree is shot," he said. "All the time spent on it is lost."
The fifth person named as a defendant is Steven Rosenstone, chancellor and chief executive of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, the statewide system that Central Lakes College is part of.
The suit accuses the defendants of conspiring to violate Keefe's constitutional rights to privacy, free speech and due process. It also says that when they accessed his private Facebook account, they violated his Fourth Amendment protection against unlawful search and seizure.
"That's another issue here," Kushner said of how the officials got the Facebook posts. "These are not posts that are open to the public. Apparently, a student complained and they would not tell him how they got into his Facebook page."
The lawyer said it was possible other students provided administrators with the Facebook pages, "but we don't know. They wouldn't tell him.
"They haven't been straight with him about anything in this," he said.
David Hanners can be reached at 612-338-6516.
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