*The Featured Image Is Not The Photo In This Article*

Puff, Puff, Banned. The Iowa State lacrosse team appears to have lost its privilege to travel for games when a University vehicle appeared in a photo, in a location, it shouldn't have been. Iowa State wasn't a fan of having one of their school vehicles parked and photographed next to a marijuana dispensary.

KCRG reports the team was traveling to Colorado springs when the students parked the vehicle to stop at a restaurant for lunch. After ISU administrators saw the photo, which ended up on social media, the team was banned from traveling upon arriving back at the ISU campus.

Where the story gets interesting to me is according to KCCI, the students didn't know the picture was being taken. They say they never went into the dispensary and only parked there to go somewhere for lunch.

I could understand why ISU administrators wouldn't be a fan of the students putting one of their vehicles in a photo next to a place to buy marijuana, even if it was a joke. Whether people like it or not, weed is illegal in Iowa and I could see why a University wouldn't be thrilled with this picture being on the internet. The problem is, the students supposedly didn't know anything about the photo.

Zach Greenburg is a Senior Program Officer of a student's rights group called FIRE, based out of Philadelphia, and he is now fighting for the ISU lacrosse team.

Greenburg spoke to KCCI and said,

The team did not know about this, they did not take the picture, and they were unaware they were being photographed.We feel that this represents a pretty egregious violation of the free speech rights

ISU has received a letter from FIRE and it is under further review. According to KCRG, Greenburg hopes to settle the issue without litigation.

Opinion

It appears to me as if the school jumped the gun a little bit here. The students weren't allowed to share their side of the story and were banned from traveling after a picture appeared on social media they didn't even know existed. I'm not sure why there couldn't have been a discussion when the students got back so the administration could get to the bottom of the story.

If it was an accident, couldn't the administration let the students know they don't want them parking near marijuana dispensaries anymore and the team needs to abide by these rules in the future? If it turns out this was a stupid prank, sure, don't allow the team to travel anymore.

Using a school vehicle is a privilege, not a right, and the students should have to follow the school's rules. If this was a complete accident, this seems a bit unfair. The problem I have is ISU administrators took away traveling privileges before having a 10-minute discussion with their own students.

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