The College Fix

Criticizing excessive LGBT celebrations lands student in hot seat

A Young Americans for Freedom leader is challenging her university’s DEI office after it investigated her for several comments.

Zoe Johnson filed a federal lawsuit against the University of Colorado-Boulder and wants to see the office of institutional equity and compliance, now called the “Office of Collaboration,” stop enforcing its “Nondiscrimination Policy.”

Johnson has been investigated under the policy for her criticism of identity politics and a simple question about a piece of clothes, according to the lawsuit.

She escaped punishment, but “now lives in constant fear that anything she says could be considered ‘unwelcome conduct’ under the Policy which would lead to another complaint and potential investigation,” it states.

The pending lawsuit follows the most recent example, beginning in October of last year, when the school told her the equity office would be investigating her for “comments [Johnson] made to other students pertaining to protected class identities.”

“Why do we need two months of this? Didn’t we do this back in June?” Johnson reportedly told a classmate in response to a choir ensemble class about LGBT history. She also offended students on another day soon after by asking what a “do-rag” was, seeing one on a male student’s head.

“I truly never meant to hurt anyone but I believe that students should have the emotional maturity to resolve any issues they have with me on their own,” Johnson said during a 2024 meeting with the choir director about her comments.

The comments led to her being reported to her choir director and ultimately the OIEC office for investigation, according to the lawsuit.

Her choir director previously criticized Johnson in 2022 for criticizing the concept of white privilege during a private conversation with a choir member. “I don’t care about your identity, I care more about what you have to say as a person, more than how you look,” she said to a classmate.

CU Boulder did not respond to multiple requests for comments in the past weeks about the lawsuit. Young America’s Foundation also did not respond to questions from The College Fix about the lawsuit.

However, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said CU-Boulder’s reporting system “chills expression.”

“Because the university defines ‘experiences of bias’ to encompass ‘behavior, speech, or expression ‘that “has a negative impact,’ virtually any joke or off-putting remark could result in the speaker being forced to navigate the university’s investigative process or ‘an educational resolution process,” Ross Marchand told The Fix via email.

“While cutting jokes and demeaning comments can be hurtful, the Supreme Court has repeatedly and clearly held that meaningful freedom of speech must protect expression others find offensive or even hateful,” the policy program reform officer said.

Marchand said “complicated, bureaucratic processes explicitly intended to ‘stop the behavior’ flies in the face of the First Amendment by chilling protected speech.”

”UC Boulder needs to make clear that, in order to be reportable, offenses need to violate the law or university policy,” Marchand said.

Some universities have dismantled their bias response teams in response to lawsuits, such as at Oklahoma State University.

However, the Supreme Court recently declined to take up a case about the constitutionality of the bias response teams, as reported by The Fix.

“More than 450 of our Nation’s colleges and universities have ‘bias response teams.’ These teams ‘encourag[e] students to report one another for expressions of ‘bias,’ and then review and act upon reports,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his dissent, criticizing his peers for not taking up the case.

Speech First had challenged Indiana University’s bias team.

The Fix, through a public records request, found the university’s own president, Pamela Whitten, had twice been reported to the school’s bias team, though IU never said if she was investigated.

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IMAGE: Casey A. Cass/ University of Colorado Boulder

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