In 2019, whereas attending the College of Tennessee Faculty of Pharmacy, Kimberly Diei was the topic of an investigation for her social media exercise following an nameless grievance. A 12 months later, following a second investigation, Diei was expelled by the college’s skilled conduct committee for violating “numerous professionalism codes.”
Diei was not accused of any crime. No bullying was alleged. She had merely referenced some spicy lyrics below her display title, “KimmyKasi,” on her non-public social media pages that made no point out of the varsity she attended. The college deemed them too “sexual,” “crude,” or “vulgar.”
“I wasn’t about to let my college get away with silencing me or some other pupil for talking our reality,” Diei stated. “Staying constructive whereas preventing for my rights for years wasn’t simple, nevertheless it was needed. All of us want to talk up when somebody tries to take our rights away — our voice is approach too highly effective to let anybody shut it down.”
In one of many offending tweets, Diei commented on a trending Twitter dialogue in regards to the track “WAP” by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, suggesting lyrics for a doable remix. In one other, she posted a selfie and included lyrics from Beyoncé’s “Partition.”
Diei, now a pharmacist residing in Memphis, efficiently appealed the pharmacy school committee’s resolution weeks after it was issued on Sept. 2, 2020, and subsequently filed a federal lawsuit alleging that her college was “violating her constitutional rights by policing her private, off-campus expression on social media.”
This month, greater than 5 years after she was first investigated, Diei’s authorized battle lastly concluded. The college agreed to settle with Diei and pay her $250,000, $70,000 of which can go to her attorneys with the Basis for Particular person Rights in Expression.
“This ruling confirms what I’ve recognized all alongside,” Diei instructed The Tennessean. “I’ve a proper to specific myself in my non-public life that’s separate from college, and so do my classmates. I enrolled in pharmacy college to be taught, to not have my style in music and my ideas on tradition policed.”
The 2021 lawsuit in opposition to officers with the College of Tennessee system argued the pharmacy college “can not police and punish the protected expression of scholars like Kimberly Diei just because officers don’t like or perceive it.”
Schools and universities aren’t “enclaves immune from the sweep of the First Modification,” the swimsuit continued.
Diesi, who on the time had practically 20,000 followers on Instagram and one other 1,600 on Twitter, used the accounts as automobiles the place she might “extra absolutely specific herself within the public area,” her lawsuit states. Lots of the posts have been sex-positive however by no means violated both of the platform’s phrases of service.
The federal swimsuit was dismissed in 2023 after Diei acquired her pharmacy diploma, rendering a number of of the arguments moot. In September 2024, she filed an enchantment via her lawyer, Greg Greubel, of the Basis for Particular person Rights in Expression.
“As a result of [Diei] plausibly alleged a free speech violation, we reverse partially and remand,” the appeals courtroom dominated.
Diei’s speech was “clearly protected” by the First Modification, the courtroom dominated, including that earlier Supreme Courtroom precedent and prior Sixth Circuit rulings put the difficulty “past debate.”
Greubel stated the choice sends a transparent message to high schools and universities in all places.
“There’s nothing unprofessional about college students expressing love of hip-hop and their sexuality on social media,” he stated. “Kim has confirmed one thing FIRE has stated for 25 years: The First Modification robustly protects college students’ rights to have a voice exterior of faculty, even when school directors don’t like what they need to say.”
