NPR

Students Accused Of Breaking College COVID-19 Rules Fight Their Punishments

As colleges crack down on students accused of violating strict pandemic safety rules, students are lawyering up to fight their punishments.
At Northeastern University, 11 students were caught hanging out together in one room, in violation of bans on having guests in campus housing and on participating in crowded gatherings. They were all kicked off campus and out of their program for the semester.

As colleges around the U.S. are facing COVID-19 outbreaks and crackdowns on students engaged in coronavirus-risky behavior, campuses are also facing a new threat: legal challenges from the students they're punishing.

Some are brazenly breaking rules, like the hundreds of Syracuse University students who risked everyone's safety — and everyone's semester — by partying like it's not 2020 in late August. Twenty-three students at that party got interim suspensions and were kicked off campus for what Syracuse officials described as "incredibly reckless behavior."

The same thing is happening to students at smaller, more "chill" gatherings. At Northeastern University, 11 students were caught

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