Student grades ex’s apology note — ‘D minus’

University suspends Lutz for violating student code of conduct by being ‘disruptive’ and ‘harmful’

Nick Lutz says the four-page apology note, handwritten on lined white notebook paper, appeared under the windshield wiper of his truck last winter.

It came from an ex-girlfriend whom he had blocked by phone and on social media. She wanted to say she was sorry, and took some liberties with spelling and grammar in the process. Lutz, still feeling betrayed from the break-up, saw an opportunity.

Like a teacher grading a paper, he took a bright red pen and savaged it, correcting mistakes and leaving commentary in the voice of a perturbed copy editor. Lutz assigned her a grade, a “D-” and wrote that he would accept “revision for half credit”. Then he posted a picture of it to Twitter. “When your ex writes you an apology letter so you grade it to send it back,” Lutz captioned the tweet, which went predictably viral, shared 121,000 times and liked 337,000 times, and spurred a swarm of journalists from across the globe to write about his “savage” words. That was five months ago.

Free speech

Now, the University of Central Florida, where Lutz is a rising senior studying sports management, has decided to suspend him over the viral tweet because, the school said, it violated the student code of conduct for being “disruptive” and “harmful.”

Lutz and his attorney, close family friend Jacob Stuart, claim the university’s ruling is unconstitutional and chills student free speech. This week, they appealed in a letter to the UCF Office of Student Conduct that called the decision a “dangerous precedent.”

“I think the damaging thing here is how does UCF decide what’s morally harmful?” Stuart told the Miami Herald. “There was nothing derogatory about it. It was obvious he was making fun of her, but that’s the beauty of the Constitution.”

Lutz’s punishment includes a suspension from classes for the summer and fall 2017 semesters, probation until he graduates and an assigned mentor, according to the appeal letter. Lutz also must create a presentation on how his “actions in this incident have impacted others” and write a five-page paper on the “impact of this type of behaviour in the future,” the letter said.

A UCF spokesperson told the Miami Herald that the ruling is not yet final.

“It’s important to understand that the process in this case may yet not be complete,” the spokesperson said.

Stuart wrote in the appeal that the exgirlfriend, who felt she was cyberbullied, filed a complaint with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, but the case was never prosecuted.