A student banned by Fordham University from campus after posing with a gun to mark the anniversary of Tiananmen Square says he’s getting the support of the Trump Administration.
Austin Tong, a Chinese American student, posted the controversial photo in June on his Instagram feed with the caption “Don’t Tread on Me, 198964.”
According to We Are Resonate, the caption was a reference to the anniversary of Tiananmen Square pro-Democracy protest which occurred on June 4, 1989.
The student just two days ago posted a screen shot of a letter from the Department of Education requesting interviews with the president of Fordham University along with other school administrators.
Earlier this month, he posted another letter from DOE with the caption
“The Trump Administration is officially looking into @fordhamuniversity’s situation.”
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Tong filed a lawsuit against the school on July 23 and has become the darling of conservative media, according to the College Fix. The school suspended Tong accusing him of violating “university regulations relating to bias and/or hate crimes” and had made “threats [and] intimidation.”
The Daily Mail reports the University also objected to an earlier post from Tong featuring the photo of David Dorn, a 77-year-old retired captain of the St. Louis Police Department. Dorn was shot and killed by a looter while trying to protect his friend’s pawn shop from rioters. Tong posted the photo with the caption “Y’all a bunch of hypocrites.”
Fordham banned him from campus and also ordered him to undergo bias training and write a letter of apology. It also threatened to suspend him if he violated his probation.
In a letter defending his action to the school’s Board of Trustees, Tong wrote “In my two posts, I expressed my appreciation for the 2nd amendment and mourning of the anniversary of a Chinese Democratic movement by posting a picture a picture of my legally purchased rifle in my home, and my sympathetic feeling toward Black police officer David Dorn.”
He went on to say he was in “no way expressing threatening or hateful thoughts.”
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