Kansas City Art Institute Reverses Expulsion for Retweeting Sexually Explicit Cartoons

From the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression today:

A student expelled from Kansas City Art Institute for retweeting sexual art won their appeal Tuesday …. KCAI reversed the expulsion decision against student Ash Mikkelsen after a demand from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

Mikkelsen retweeted sexually explicit Japanese-style cartoons, known as hentai, on their personal, pseudonymous Twitter account. Allegedly, the art institute investigated Mikkelsen for sexual harassment in response to the complaint of another student, who found the account and told administrators about the images. Though Mikkelsen did not tag anyone from the university community in their Twitter posts or send messages related to the account to anyone, KCAI expelled Mikkelsen for their artistic expression—and banned them from ever re-enrolling….

KCAI attempted to justify investigating and then expelling Mikkelsen for non-Title IX hostile environment sexual harassment under its Student Code of Conduct. However, KCAI does not define sexual harassment under that code. It's patently unfair and unlawful to punish students under indefinite disciplinary standards. Moreover, Mikkelsen's retweets don't come anywhere close to meeting the legal definition of sexual harassment.

As a private university, KCAI is not bound by the First Amendment's protections for free speech. But KCAI's policies, which the college is morally and contractually required to uphold, state that the school "is committed to freedom of expression," "supports the rights of the campus community to engage in free speech and open assembly," and values "intellectual and artistic curiosity together with critical and creative inquiry."

The school first notified Mikkelsen of the investigation into their Twitter account on June 15 and met with Mikkelsen the same day to discuss the investigation. On June 29, Mikkelsen again met with Assistant Dean of Students Joe Timson, who told Mikkelsen that they would be expelled for violating the Student Code of Conduct. Mikkelsen was not given an adequate chance to contest the allegations prior to the university imposing the most severe penalty possible.

KCAI gave Mikkelsen five business days to appeal the finding, which they did on July 6, with the assistance of FIRE Legal Network attorney Ted Green….

Disclosure: FIRE engaged me to consult on some matters, but they are entirely unrelated to this case and I wasn't asked to put up this post.

Comments

[Cal Cetín]

The school reached out with its tentacles of censorship, but FIRE cut them off.

But supposing a private school, even an art school, specifically banned students from circulating dirty pictures, without reference to Title IX or harassment. Just saying that dirty pictures are not stuff they want students disseminating. I suppose that would be a sufficient warning?

[Currentsitguy]

The real problem with that is with no formal definition when does it cross the line from art to “dirty”?

[Cal Cetín]

Potter Stewart, thou shouldst be living at this hour
Common sense hath need of thee

[Currentsitguy]

“I know it when I see it” cannot be an objective standard for any sort of objective system of standards, though.

[Cal Cetín]

In a private institution it can.

[Currentsitguy]

I haven’t seen the images in question but the fact remains that some types of hentai have been a Japanese art tradition stretching back hundreds of years and could arguably be called art it’s own right even though it may be considered shocking to Western eyes.

[Cal Cetín]

For pornographic art, the better it is artistically the morally worse it is.

Consider it the pornographic equivalent of Birth of a Nation.

[Currentsitguy]

Well we are talking about an art school here. I don’t know their curriculum but I am going to assume this is not the Kansas City Institute of Western Art, which means, again subject to the nature of the images in question, it is a style that is a legitimate subject of study. My wife has a rather extensive collection of art books covering much of the world, and hentai always figures prominently in any Japanese section.

[Cal Cetín]

I have a Japanese version of the story of King Arthur, where King Arthur’s father went to the castle of Tin-tacle.