Student activist to fight discipline by Fresno State

Student activist to fight discipline by Fresno State
Posted at 12:13 PM on Thursday, Sep. 01, 2011


Neil O'Brien arrived at Fresno State in fall 2010, and before the semester was over he had spearheaded a conservative movement aimed at driving out illegal-immigrant students and challenging what he calls radical ideas espoused by Fresno State administrators.

Now he has gone a step further. After Fresno State took disciplinary action against him for allegedly threatening two faculty members in the Chicano and Latin American Studies Department, O'Brien hired a lawyer.

And not just any lawyer -- Brian Leighton, a Clovis attorney who won a major case against the CIA in 2009 and has gained a reputation for challenging federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Claiming the college has squashed O'Brien's First Amendment rights, Leighton said he is eager to go up against Fresno State. "I don't like what Fresno State is doing," Leighton said.

snip...
O'Brien's judiciary mess started with a poem printed last May in La Voz de Aztlan, an ethnic student publication distributed with the college newspaper. O'Brien took issue with language in the student-written poem, most notably the term "white savage."

O'Brien said he wanted to know why the poem was published in a student-supported newspaper. So last May, armed with a video camera, he headed to the offices of Chicano and Latin American Studies Chair Victor Torres and teacher Maria-Aparecida Lopes to demand answers. Torres is one of the newspaper advisers.


Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/09/01/2520890/student-hires-lawyer-to-fight.html#ixzz1Wje8oIvs

lol

By the way, could I see your citizenship papers, please? I'm afraid I'll need your long form birth certificate. "O'Brien," huh? I believe that's a Somali name, isn't it? Are you from Somalia? Can you prove you're not from Somalia, because that's where we believe you should be repatriated if you can't prove you're 100% American to my personal satisfaction.

have faced "Irish need not apply" signs. But someone must have forgotten to tell him about his own nationalities problems when they were the immigrants.

They have a shame-ectomy shortly after birth. Think of it as circumcision for the conscience.

must have been something like that.

if disicipline is upheld in his case, when the case against him arises from his own efforts to stifle the First Amendment rights of others.

I wonder if he's ever heard of the literary device call "irony."