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A student at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis who first faced discipline when officials caught him reading a history book that was available in the school library during a break at work was cleared of those charges, but now officials say he is guilty of something but they won't say what.
If that sounds complicated, you're in company with Keith John Sampson, who first was convicted of racial harassment for reading a history book about the defeat of the Ku Klux Klan in a 1924 street brawl. And you'd be in company with officials with the Foundation for Individual Responsibility in Education, who are arguing on behalf of Sampson. ...
The fact that the book documented how Notre Dame students fought in the streets with – and defeated – members of the KKK was ignored. The school told him his racial harassment involved "openly reading the book related to a historically and racially abhorrent subject."
Then this year, "in the face of withering public criticism," the school "revoked its original finding," according to documentation from FIRE, which said it got a letter from Chancellor Charles R. Bantz, "stating that IUPUI 'regret[s] this situation took place.' The letter also confirmed that no documents regarding the incident are in Sampson's file."
However, in their talks with Rabinowitz about the case, school officials apparently have changed the field of play again, explaining that the book was not an issue at all, but something else was.
"If IUPUI really thought that Sampson had engaged in some 'racially harassing' behavior rather than reading a book, there is no reason why they would not have brought it up at the time – and no reason why they couldn't [say] what it is now," said FIRE Vice President Robert Shibley. "This apparent whispering campaign against Sampson is truly appalling." ...
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