School: Student suspended over post, not professor fight

WINTER PARK, Fla. (AP) — Officials at a Florida university say a Christian student who got into an argument with his Muslim professor was suspended for social media comments made to another student, not because of the confrontation with the professor.

Rollins College President Grant Cornwell told the Orlando Sentinel (https://goo.gl/w1apIW ) on Monday that someone had complained about 20-year-old Marshall Polston writing vulgar comments to another student on Facebook. The school ultimately decided Polston's posts weren't a specific threat, so he was reinstated.

Cornwell says Professor Areej Zufari has resigned because of threats after widespread news coverage of Polston's suspension last month.

Polston's attorney, Kenneth Lewis, called the Facebook posting a joke and said the real reason for the suspension was because he disagreed with Zufari's teachings on Christianity in the Middle Eastern humanities class.

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Information from: Orlando Sentinel, http://www.orlandosentinel.com/