By: Valentina Palm / Editor In Chief
and Victor Jorges / News Director
A former FIU student filed a civil rights lawsuit worth $25 million against the University’s Board of Trustees and College of Law.
Christina McLaughlin claims the FIU Law school dismissed her for being a President Trump supporter.
Under the United States constitution, the discrimination of any individual for their political affiliation is a violation of civil rights.
The FIU Law school expelled Mclaughlin for failing to meet academic standards after earning a 1.98 GPA. The law school’s minimum GPA requirement is 2.0. During her appeal process, she was denied legal representation in her dismissal hearing, according to filed court documents.
The 350-page federal court documents reference two instances in the FIU Law school. First, the documents say a professor called McLaughlin immoral for being a Trump supporter. The second details a class presentation where Trump supporters were represented as mentally ill and a computer was thrown.
Mclaughlin sued the University’s Board of Trustees and the Florida Board of Governors for the state university system. The chair of FIU BOT Claudia Puig, the chair of the BOG Ned Laudenbach and the Assistant Counsel of the GOB, Iris Elijah, are also included in the suit.
The suit is also against FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg, the university’s Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, Marci Rosenthal, FIU former Law School Dean, Alex Acosta, and interim Dean Tawia Baidoe Ansah.
Professors Thomas Baker, Scott Norberg, Howard Wasserman, and Rosario Schrier are also included in the suit with former law professor Jocelyn Brown.
Mclaughlin also sued the U.S. Department of Education and Secretary of Education Elisabeth Devos.
After being removed from FIU’s program, Mclaughlin, who goes by Chirsty, graduated from Ave Maria University and is now running as a GOP candidate for Florida’s 19th Congressional District in the upcoming August elections.
Her candidacy website confirms that she is a supporter of President Trump, mentioning his name 19 times throughout the site. Her campaign imagery shows similarities to Trump’s campaign, using the slogan “Keep SW Florida Great.”
This is an ongoing story and it will be updated.
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