Back in February, a Florida college student made headlines after he dissed his ex-girlfriend by grading an apology letter she wrote to him and sharing it on Twitter. Evidently, the university he's attending didn't appreciate the move, as Nick Lutz has now been suspended by his school through the 2017 fall semester.
Lutz, a 21-year-old student at the University of Central Florida, became a viral sensation after he shared the infamous letter on his Twitter page, complete with plenty of corrections and red ink. For an ex-girlfriend in search of reconciliation, Lutz offered nothing but snark.
When your ex writes you an apology letter so you grade it to send it back pic.twitter.com/MczdjcCiil
By grading the woman's relationship claims like a history paper—he addressed her denials of cheating with jabs like "no supporting details"—Lutz generated more than 121,000 retweets of the letter. He and his unnamed ex-girlfriend are now part of internet lore forever.
But according to the Miami Herald, Lutz's ex didn't appreciate this tactic and felt she was cyber-bullied by him. After approaching a local sheriff's office and coming up empty, the ex-girlfriend reportedly went directly to Lutz's school and filed a grievance with the university.
Following a review by UCF, the school ruled Lutz would be suspended for both the summer and fall semesters in 2017 for violating the "disruptive conduct" and "harmful behavior" portions of the university's conduct code. Lutz discussed the suspension on his Facebook page, with an extended rant directed at the university accompanied by a letter from his attorney.
"[The suspension] has caused much stress for my family and myself, this also violates my 1st amendment right to freedom of expression, no matter who agrees or disagrees with it," Lutz said. "As a result, I am sharing this story to alert everyone, including the 60k+ students of UCF, that our school is deciding what posts they like and dislike."
In an appeal letter filed through the university's web portal, Lutz's attorney asserted that his client should not be punished for several reasons, including one key point—he never identified the ex-girlfriend.
"Mr. Lutz's post on the social media platform does not mention the alleged victim's last name, address, phone number, email, or any form of username/identification that would allow someone to identify her," Jacob Stuart wrote. "Mr. Lutz is not responsible for other's actions if someone were to connect her to a post or if the alleged victim were to willfully identify herself."
A spokeswoman for the university, Courtney Gilmartin, said the decision is not necessarily final. "It's important to understand that the process in this case may yet not be complete," she said.
