Parents of two Northeastern University students retained legal counsel to fight the school’s decision to dismiss their children for the semester without refunding $36,500 of tuition fees.
Brett Joshpe, a lawyer from Manhattan, is representing the families of two undergraduate students who were “dismissed” without refunds after allegedly violating COVID-19 social distancing protocols. Joshpe did not name his clients but said the university was “grossly disproportionate, rigid, and imperious” in its discipline and blasted the school’s description of the events as “false and defamatory.”
“These educational tyrants are more interested in publicly humiliating their paying customers than they are concerned about anybody’s health, including the mental and emotional health of first-year students,” Joshpe told the Boston Globe in a statement. “On top of it all, they are trying to rob these families blind to the tune of $36,500. Outrageous does not begin to characterize it, and this matter is not going away.”
According to a statement from Northeastern University, the students were among nine other first-year individuals dismissed after they were “discovered together in a room at the Westin Hotel in Boston on Wednesday night, in violation of university and public health protocols that prohibit crowded gatherings.”
“The students (and their parents) were notified Friday that they must vacate the Westin within 24 hours. Before departing, they were required to undergo COVID-19 testing at Northeastern, with the understanding that anyone who tests positive will be moved into wellness housing at the university until they have recovered, in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus,” the school added in its statement, later noting the students can contest their dismissal at a hearing.
Joshpe said the students were not partying but rather watching a basketball game while wearing face masks. He said they tested negative for COVID-19 on multiple occasions. Officials from Northeastern University declined to comment on the matter to the Boston Globe, citing that the appeals process was ongoing.
The 11 students involved are part of a program at the university called N.U.in, which permits first-year undergraduates to study abroad. However, students were kept in Boston at the Westin Hotel less than 1 mile away from campus due to the coronavirus pandemic.
