Fordham Student Banned from Campus over Post Commemorating Tiananmen Square Massacre

A Fordham University student is threatening to sue the university after it placed him on disciplinary probation for Instagram posts commemorating the Tiananmen Square Massacre and memorializing a black retired police officer killed during a riot in St. Louis, Mo., last month.

Fordham found that rising senior Austin Tong’s posts violated its policies on “bias and/or hate crimes” and “threats/intimidation.” The probation restricts his access to campus, forcing him to finish his degree online, and bars him from participating in extracurricular activities. The university also ordered Tong to complete implicit bias training and to write a letter of apology.

On June 3, Tong posted a photo of David Dorn, a 77-year-old retired police captain who was fatally shot by a looter while trying to defend a friend’s pawnshop from theft during a riot a day earlier. 

Tong captioned the photo “Y’all a bunch of hypocrites,” which he said in a statement was meant to express his frustration, as a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, with “the nonchalant societal reaction over [Dorn’s] death.”