On Monday, the student conduct code violation charges against Lola Loustaunau were retracted. Earlier this month she was charged for participating in a protest she said she did not attend.
This news comes 17 days after it was first reported that the student, Lola Loustaunau, UO graduate student, said she was not at the protest. Loustaunau informed the Emerald that the charges had been retracted a few minutes after her administrative conference ended around 9:30 a.m.
The charges that Loustaunau faced came after a protest on Oct. 6. She was charged with “Disruption of University” and “Failure to Comply.”
The protest was at UO President Michael Schill’s “State of the University” speech. Protestors from the UO Student Collective took the stage and the speech was cancelled.
At least 12 other protesters from the event are going through the student conduct code process. The UOSC has asked the UO Senate to support them and their members in an effort to get the charges against all of the students dropped.
At her administrative conference with Katy Larkin, associate director for investigations, group accountability, student conduct and community standards, Loustaunau presented Larkin with evidence that showed that Loustaunau was not at the protest.
This evidence includes: screenshots of a Skype call from the time and date of the protest, screenshots of two texts that suggest she did not come to the UO campus that day until after the protest was over, a letter from her friend who she was on the Skype call with, a letter from her advisor and head of the sociology department who attended the protest and confirmed that Loustaunau was not there and pictures of herself from the day of the protest, according to Loustaunau. In addition, her friend who she was on the Skype call with confirmed over the phone that he was on Skype with Loustaunau at the time of the protest.
Larkin used Loustaunau’s indication of “going” on a Facebook event for the protest as well as photos from the protest of a woman she thought was Loustaunau and Loustaunau’s Facebook profile picture to decide to charge her with conduct code violations, according to Loustaunau.
A statement from UO Spokesperson Tobin Klinger confirmed that the university used photos, video and social media activity to determine who to charge for participating in the Oct. 6 protest.
Larkin did not present any evidence at the Administrative Conference according to Loustaunau.
The UO is unable to comment on the status of Lostaunau’s charges because they are “part of a student’s educational record,” which remains private in accordance with FERPA.
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