It's Amazing People Like This Are Running Colleges And Get To Keep Their Jobs
TheFIRE.org just got a college to backtrack on the "Game of Thrones" case -- an absolutely astonishing case in which New Jersey's Bergen Community College (BCC) placed an art professor, Francis Schmidt, on leave and forced him to undergo a psychiatric evaluation for posting a picture of his daughter wearing a Game of Thrones T-shirt. From a post at FIRE:

Schmidt's ordeal began in January when he posted a picture on Google+ of his young daughter wearing a T-shirt with a quote from the hit HBO show Game of Thrones: "I will take what is mine with fire & blood." After Schmidt posted the picture, an automatic email was sent to his Google+ contacts, including one of BCC's deans. She reported it to other administrators, who summoned Schmidt to a meeting to explain his "threatening email."

Even after Schmidt and other BCC personnel assured the administrators that the quote on the T-shirt came from a popular TV show, they continued to insist it posed a danger. According to the head of security, the word "fire" in the quote "could be a kind of proxy for 'AK-47s.'"

In response to the posting, BCC placed Schmidt on leave without pay until a psychiatrist attested to his mental fitness. Even after he was reinstated, BCC placed an official warning in his file and threatened him with "suspension and/or termination" if he made "disparaging" remarks about the college or acted in any way BCC determined to be "unbecoming."

Under pressure from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, BCC expunged the reprimand from Schmidt's record in late September, stating that "any penalty or restriction" Schmidt suffered is now "rescinded and acknowledged to be null and void." The letter confirms that Schmidt "will be in good standing with BCC as if the Incident never occurred, and BCC's records shall so reflect."

FIRE Legal Network member Derek Shaffer, a partner at the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, and Gabriel Soledad, an associate at the firm, defended Schmidt.

Thank you, Derek and Gabriel, for making unfree speech a little more unwelcome.