Tennessee Grad Student Settles $250K Lawsuit After Almost Getting Expelled for Sharing 'Crude' Lyrics on Social Media

Mar. 15, 2025

Kimberly Diei in 2025.Photo:VIA Productions and Breezy Lucia/FIRE

VIA Productions and Breezy Lucia/FIRE

After being almost expelled for sharingBeyoncéandCardi Blyrics online, Kimberly Diei has been awarded $250K.

The pharmacy student settled a federal lawsuit in January 2025 involving what she posted on her personal social media page, with the court ruling that her social media posts had nothing to do with where she went to school and couldn’t be utilized for reprimanding at school.

The complaint claimed that she violated “several professionalism codes.” Diei’s posts did not identify her as a student at the school or indicate any affiliation with the University of Tennessee.

Kimberly Diei in 2021.VIA Productions and Breezy Lucia/FIRE

Two years later, the suit was dismissed, as Diei received her pharmacy degree and several of the points in the suit were considered moot. However, in September 2024, she and Greg Greubel, a lawyer with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, appealed the case.

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“Diei requests a declaratory judgment stating that defendants unconstitutionally applied the professionalism policies against her, and that [Christa George, Chair of the College’s Professional Conduct Committee] unconstitutionally retaliated against her.”

The appeal added that “Diei’s speech did not identify her with the College, had no connection to her studies, and did not lead to disruption. So unless the College had a genuine educational purpose for regulating Diei’s speech, her communications fell safely within the confines of First Amendment protection.”

“This ruling confirms what I’ve known all along,” Diei said, viaThe Tennessean. “I have a right to express myself in my private life that’s separate from school, and so do my classmates. I enrolled in pharmacy school to learn, not to have my taste in music and my thoughts on culture policed.”

source: people.com