<p>[University</a> of Alabama student faces possible EXPULSION after organizing massive ‘Harlem Shake’ stunt on campus | Mail Online](<a href=“University of Alabama student faces possible EXPULSION after organizing massive 'Harlem Shake' stunt on campus | Daily Mail Online”>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2281105/University-Alabama-student-faces-possible-EXPULSION-organizing-massive-Harlem-Shake-stunt-campus.html)</p>
<p>Read the comments…</p>
<p>Beyond ridiculous!!! I hope he gets it going again. Such harmless fun. :-)</p>
<p>Would you please change the title of this post? It is deceptive. There has been no decision to expel!</p>
<p>Too late to change title, but the organizer says he fears expulsion</p>
<p>[UAPD</a> disperses Harlem Shake crowd, student organizer ticketed](<a href=“Announcements for 7/22/2010 - The Crimson White”>Announcements for 7/22/2010 - The Crimson White)</p>
<p>I keep saying the same thing. He’s a teenage boy that fears the worst. He said he might get expelled. My teenagers say all sorts of exaggerated things. He’s not getting expelled. They put a little fear into him, that’s it. Apparently, all he needed to do was run it by the admin’s office to let them know what was going on. Admin will jump to the worst scenario as well.
Yes, it seemed like harmless fun but there are still rules to abide by. I don’t like all the rules either but sometimes we have to play within the lines. The kid probably received more exposure for the shut down than the actual Harlem Shake gathering. Maybe he’ll come back with something even bigger and better, now that he knows the rules :)</p>
<p>He fears expulsion,so that justifies the title? If he fears getting hit by an asteriod does that make impact imminent??</p>
<p>Yes, he’s a teen who doesn’t know the rules, but requiring a permit (or at least permission) to hold such a gathering isn’t uncommon. When you want to organize something on that scale, it only makes sense to ask what type of permission is required. His gathering wasn’t meant to cause any harm, and was not a protest, but someone else could have come along and caused trouble - and he would have been to blame for organizing the event.</p>
<p>If he had gone through proper channels, he might have even gotten some help in organizing an even bigger gathering.</p>
<p>I doubt expulsion is in his future, but they were right to shut it down until it could be organized properly.</p>
<p>We were looking forward to seeing this done. I never imagined it would have caused such a stir. A small token of UA pride would have gone a long way with these kids. Too bad it didn’t work out.</p>
<p>I think I saw something about them trying to reschedule this for today in a different location.</p>
<p>UAPD ticketed the student organizer of Monday afternoon’s Harlem Shake filming, saying the organizers lacked official University permission to assemble.</p>
<p>“They told me not to talk to the press,” Nojan Radfar, a freshman who organized the event, said. “As of right now, I just have a ticket, but I’m worried I could be expelled.”</p>
<p>[Censorship</a> 1, Fun 0: U of Alabama Frosh Ticketed for Harlem Shake Video Shoot - The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education - FIRE](<a href=“http://thefire.org/article/15466.html]Censorship”>Newsdesk | The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression)</p>
<p>“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”</p>
<p>I’m not a lawyer, but this case seems to be a blatant violation of the students First Amendment rights.</p>
<p>While I think this whole thing is odd, “congress” isn’t making a rule here, a school is. Schools have long been allowed to make rules restricting all kinds of “expression”. Schools are allowed to restrict the use of foul language, certain clothing items, hairstyles, etc. Businesses are also allowed to make rules restricting expression.</p>
<p>The issue seemed to be with the student’s failure to obtain a permit, not an attempt to deny his freedom of expression. </p>
<p><a href=“http://cw.ua.edu/2013/03/11/official-ua-harlem-shake/[/url]”>Announcements for 7/22/2010 - The Crimson White;
<p>Most communities have rules about large gatherings primarily for public safety. I believe people of all ages should learn to respect rules/laws or expect consequences. If a rule or law is unjust, there are ways to work to have them changed. I don’t see this as a violation of freedom of expression. As far as I know the only person who actually spoke of expulsion was the student himself and the title of this thread.</p>
<p>I think this Harlem Shake video has been completely overblown and that UA actually did the right thing. They have have a plainly written permit rule with clear and defined guidelines and restriction so they don’t show favoritism to certain groups. First, I doubt the administration knew what the Harlem Shake video craze was when they suspended the massive gathering on the quad. Say it was some sort of minority gathering. If they would have said okay guys, “you don’t need the permit this time but make sure you get it next time,” but then they told a different minority group they absolutely needed the permit or something. The whole thing is made so the school shows no biased discrimination and I commend them on that. Yes, in this situation it may have been silly, but it could have sort of made a mockery of the whole procedure. This kid should have done his homework (If I’m organizing around a 1000 person gathering on the quad, I would think to let the school know and lookup any guidelines first, just seems like common sense that was just lacking in an 18-19 year old). I really doubt the schools has EVER mentioned expelling this kid. It sounds like he is still milking this whole thing for the victim card. He should just realize he made a mistake and be done with it. I’m sorry for the rant but when their people saying the school violated this kid’s 1st amendment (completely agree with m2ck btw) like just give me a break. I would hate for a potential student to be swayed from coming here because they get the absurd idea that UA is oppressing its students after reading a thread on here where people are getting way to emotional about a school following administrative guidelines.</p>
<p>I agree, and I also think the thread title is misleading if not inflammatory although I’m not saying it was intentional.</p>
<p>Yes. The thread title seems to definitely be for pot stirring. I really doubt the school has ever mentioned or even thought about expelling the kid. The same school that let Westboro Baptist Church recently protest malicously tries to attack students for Harlem Shake Videos and general fun having? They were just enforcing their permit guidelines.</p>
<p>When I started the thread. I took the thread title from the source I cited. Time clarifies issues.</p>
<p>I noticed the title of that article, too. The writer seems to have picked up on the student’s quote stating that, “As of right now I just have a ticket, but I’m worried I could be expelled.” They sensationalized it to read that the student “faces possible expulsion”, and then the title of this thread said he was “to be expelled”. I’m not saying it was intentionally misleading, but it wasn’t necessarily accurate. The problem is when conclusions are drawn from those inaccuracies. I have never seen any word from the UA saying he might be expelled or that there was any issue other than the lack of a permit. I think it is a leap for anyone to say his freedom of expression was violated or that he was to be expelled, but that’s just my thoughts.</p>
<p>Interesting that this comes back up to the top now. My DD will be graduating next week from high school. The seniors have been planning the “senior prank”. They met last week for his “blessing” and approval of their plan. One student on their FB page commented that
“getting x’s permission does not make this a prank”. To that the rest followed with, "we would like to graduate and cross the stage. Yes, we went to x and got his permission. </p>
<p>Last Friday the entire school created their video of the year to the Harlem Shake. It is organized by the admin of the school and everyone participates. Last year it was that lip dub thing going all thru the school. It was pretty cool. </p>
<p>Point is, all of these are being done with the approval from administration. From high school kids that went and asked their prinicpal before any prank or video is done. Can’t tell me that a kid that was smart enough to get into college does not know that they should get approvale for such gatherings if they are going to do it on campus.</p>
<p>You made a very good point. Learning to think first is an important part of the process of becoming an adult.</p>
<p>You need a law degree to understand UA’s ground use policy.</p>
<p><a href=“http://thefire.org/public/pdfs/c6ac49f40062a0227e0134746f0f20ce.pdf?direct[/url]”>http://thefire.org/public/pdfs/c6ac49f40062a0227e0134746f0f20ce.pdf?direct</a></p>
<p>Under UA’s policy, individual students aren’t allowed to organize their own rallies, discussions, meet-ups, or any other kind of expressive activity on campus. It’s unlikely that most freshman students would be aware of that.</p>