‘I feel like they attacked me’: KCAI reverses student’s expulsion over Twitter posts

The Kansas City Art Institute has reversed its decision to expel an incoming student who contended they were wrongfully removed for reposting graphic Japanese pornographic art on social media.

Ash Mikkelsen said they were notified in June that another student reported their pseudonymous Twitter account, where they posted hentai, as sexual harassment. At the time, Mikkelsen said a school official told them the report wasn’t a major issue, and they would need to go through with an incident behavioral conference as a formality and could walk away with a warning.

About two weeks later, that official told Mikkelsen they would be expelled.

“They gave me the lowest form of punishment, which is a warning,” Mikkelsen said, “and then it jumped from that to the most severe, which is expulsion.”

Mikkelsen looked for support online and found the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit focused on free speech issues. The organization sent a letter to KCAI challenging the expulsion and Mikkelsen submitted an appeal.

A spokeswoman for KCAI declined to comment on individual student matters.

“We are aware of the letter that was sent by Fire, unfortunately, we are not at liberty to discuss or share any personal information about our current or former students,” Kathy St. Clair, assistant director of marketing and communication, said. “It is the college’s policy not to discuss individual cases involving disciplinary action or student code of conduct matters.”

While KCAI is a private school and not bound by the same rules as a public institution, FIRE said the institute lists a commitment to freedom of expression in its social media policy. If KCAI stands behind those words, FIRE argued it would reverse the expulsion even though it may find the art Mikkelsen reposts on a personal account unaffiliated with the college to be uncomfortable.

“The point of administration is to protect students,” Mikkelsen said, “and I don’t feel like they protected me, I feel like they attacked me.

FIRE also argued in its letter that hentai, a type of pornographic anime that depicts nudity and sex, is an art form dating back to the 18th century. The organization said an art school should protect the right to expression, even if that art isn’t appreciated by all.

The college responded to Mikkelsen’s appeal this week, saying they had reversed the decision and will allow Mikkelsen to attend the art institute.

“The expulsion shouldn’t have happened in the first place, but we’re glad that it has been overturned.,” said Sabrina Conza, a program officer with FIRE’s campus rights advocacy team. “Institutions need to respect the promises that they make to students and that includes the free expression promises that they make.”

Claims of sexual harassment in the case were also unfounded, Conza said, because Mikkelsen never tried to share the account or images with other students, and the posts have not been removed or flagged by Twitter.

Mikkelsen said the school official who told them about the expulsion said the posts made the reporting student uncomfortable because they had dealt with sexual misconduct in the past.

Mikkelsen says they have faced the same issues and use the account to get through that trauma.

“My therapist actually approves of my stuff that I post about,” they said, “advocates for it because it is a coping mechanism for trauma victims to then repost sexual art.”

FIRE connected Mikkelsen with an attorney who helped them write the appeal, Conza said.

Personal impacts

Mikkelsen said they’ve been interested in animation since childhood.

A year after graduating high school in 2018, they put those goals on hold and joined the military. Mikkelsen was stationed in North Carolina before being deployed with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit. They spent their last year of service in Japan.

Mikkelsen decided to leave in January to apply to KCAI’s animation program. They were accepted and enrolled in classes starting this August in hopes of improving their skills to one day design for companies or create a graphic novel series.

Mikkelsen said the news of the expulsion impacted their personal life. Before the decision was overturned, they worried they’d lose approximately $1,500 a month in allowance from their G.I. Bill. They looked at potential options to take on additional jobs or return to Japan to work as a civilian contractor for the military.

The situation, Mikkelsen said, also affected their mental health: recent therapy sessions were dedicated to talking about the expulsion, and their therapist put them on a safety plan for a bit, which is used when clients have expressed suicidal thoughts.

“It’s definitely disappointed me a lot that an art school would be so … prude-ish or Puritan about art,” Mikkelsen said, “considering that the whole point of art is to evoke emotion, whether that emotion be love, fear, hate, disgust. That’s the whole point, and now it just kind of puts a bad taste in my mouth not only for that art school but other art schools cause you just never know now.”

Still, Mikkelsen said they need to decide if they want to attend a school that did not allow them to express themselves and where students may be talking about the controversy.

This article has been edited to reflect the correct spelling of Sabrina Conza’s name.