A student at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville is suing the school in a challenge to its speech policies.
Chike Uzuegbunam tried to share his Christian beliefs in July and August, according to a press release from the Alliance Defending Freedom; his attorneys said that the school required him to get permission three days in advance before doing so.
The campus has two "speech zones," which are open 18 hours per week.
“The First Amendment guarantees every student’s freedom of speech and religion. Every public school—and especially a state college that is supposed to be the ‘marketplace of ideas’—has the duty to protect and promote those freedoms,” said ADF Legal Counsel Travis Barham.
“Students don’t check their constitutionally protected free speech at the campus gate. While touting commitments to ‘diversity’ and ‘open communications,’ Georgia Gwinnett College confines the speech of students to two ridiculously small speech zones and then censors the speech that occurs in those areas.”
Uzuegbunam alleges that, despite adhering to the three-day rule in a later instance, the school still forced him to stop, citing their "disorderly conduct" rule.
In July, Uzuegbunam was told to stop handing out Christian literature outside the school's library, lawyers said.
The suit alleges that students' first and 14th amendments are violated by the school's discipline code.
An email to the school seeking comment was not immediately returned.
