A student at the centre of a free speech row who declared “women have vaginas” is suing Abertay University.
Lisa Keogh, 29, confirmed on Thursday she is taking legal action against the university for the stress the controversy earlier this year caused her.
The mum-of-two was cleared in June of this year following an investigation into claims that she made “offensive” comments including “women have vaginas.”
The law student was reported by classmates at Abertay following comments made during a debate, including saying “the difference in physical strength of men versus women is a fact”.
Ms Keogh said: “I can confirm that my solicitors MML Legal Dundee have raised an action by me against Abertay University, Dundee.
Seeking compensation
“As this matter is now in court, I cannot discuss the merits of the case.
“However, I can confirm that I am seeking compensation from them for undertaking a disciplinary process against me for expressing certain gender critical beliefs, which my legal team believe was a breach of the Equality Act 2010 and an infringement of my ECHR rights of freedom of expression.”
Comments ‘offensive and discriminatory’
Fellow law students said her comments were offensive and discriminatory, which led to a misconduct investigation against Ms Keogh and a row over the university’s free speech stance.
In a letter to her after clearing her, the university said the allegations made against her “were not in relation to personal opinions but to alleged behaviour in class”.
It said the accusation against her was as follows: “Made inappropriate comments during class discussions which could be construed as discriminatory and continued to make offensive comments and behaved in a disrespectful manner, despite being made aware that your behaviour was harmful to others and despite reminders about the university’s policies related to conduct”.
Victory
At the time Ms Keogh said: ” I received a letter from Abertay University dismissing all the complaints made against me.
“This is a victory.
“As overjoyed as I am about this decision, I am saddened that I went through this at such a critical time in my university career.
“The very end of my period at Abertay is now tarnished with these bad memories and I worry that my final grades will have been affected by this.”
In a series of tweets on Thursday, Ms Keogh says the row and the investigation caused her stress at the most crucial part of her university career.
Breach of Equality Act
Ms Keogh is now suing Abertay for an alleged breach of the Equality Act.
She said she would be crowdfunding to raise the money to finance her action.
An Abertay University spokesman said: “I can confirm the university has received a letter from Ms Keogh’s solicitor. We won’t be making any further comment at this time.”
Abertay student cleared of wrongdoing after ‘women have vaginas’ free speech row