Marcus Knight, a Saddleback College student, was suspended after giving a female student a ‘fist bump’ and taking a ‘selfie’ with another student.
Marcus, who has cerebral palsy and autism, wants to make friends with his classmates by offering fist bumps and taking selfies.
His attempts to make friends are often accepted but in two incidents, students reported him for Title IX violations.
One of the two women who reported him said he took more than 250 pictures of her. But that was just because Marcus was pressing the ‘burst’ option when taking selfies. She also claimed that he ‘forcefully placed (his) hand on her shoulder while taking a selfie with her.’
Because of his disabilities, Marcus has limited ability to understand and recognize social cues. His mom, Aurora Knight, set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for legal fees to fight for her son’s suspension.
Although the suspension was overturned, the reports are still on his transcript.
Aurora said that her son never received a fair hearing and the investigator had no formal training. Even though no one testified against Marcus, he was still found responsible.
Prolific Title IX attorney Mark Hathaway has now taken Marcus’ case and a hearing will soon take place regarding the lawsuit.
“We believe that Saddleback College failed to comply with the law and their own policy in improperly disciplining Marcus Knight and no sanctions should ever have been imposed against him,” Hathaway told Toni Airaksinen for The Post Millennial.
The Daily Wire also interviewed Aurora Knight and she always cries whenever she talks about what happened to Marcus.
On the GoFundMe page she created, Aurora wrote: “Marcus is an amazing person! He has never ever been inappropriate with anyone. All he desires is to make friends and be treated like everyone else. He works so hard to keep up in a normal classroom setting. He works so hard to overcome his social obstacles. And the administration is throwing him on the cross to simply make him go away.
“With his special needs, many people have tried to put him down over the years. He has fought for his right to have friends and an education. His one dream is to have a college degree and they are trying to take that from him unjustly.”
She also said to the Millennial that her son had “been robbed of two first years in college” and that his “dreams have crashed.”
Marcus has already resumed classes but he must always be accompanied by an assistant.
“He was just trying to make a friend … and now he is so lonely,” Aurora told the Daily Wire.
What are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments section and SHARE this post with your family and friends!
Replaced!