After Nick Lutz read a heartfelt, handwritten apology letter from his ex-girlfriend earlier this year, the University of Central Florida student took photos of the four-page mea culpa and sent them to his friends.
Their response? Grade the letter and send it back to her, the Miami Herald reported.
So that's what Lutz did.
Jotting down critiques in the margins with a red pen like a professor, Lutz called his ex's lack of thematic strength — "useless filling sentences" and "lackadaisical handwriting," he noted — and even corrected her spelling.
"Long intro, short conclusion, strong hypothesis but nothing to back it up," he added. "Details are important. If you want to be believed, back it up with proof ... Need to stop contradicting your own story and pick a side."
Lutz gave his ex's letter a D-minus — 61 points out of 100.
But he did offer a lifeline: "Revision for half credit will be accepted," Lutz concluded. "Good luck."
Then Lutz tweeted out his handiwork — and it went viral.
His February post on Twitter garnered over 121,000 retweets and was liked nearly 340,000 times as of Wednesday afternoon.
Lutz never mentioned his ex-girlfriend's name when the letter became a phenomenon, the Miami Herald said. But the meager cross-out of her name on the letter's last page may not have been enough.
His ex felt cyberbullied, Lutz's lawyer Jacob Stuart told the paper, adding that she went to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. And while nothing came of that visit, Stuart told the Herald that she then turned her attention to the University of Central Florida, filing a grievance despite the fact that she's not a student there.
Initially, the school sent Lutz a letter saying he may have violated the law, WFTV-TV reported.
But ultimately, Lutz learned he was suspended for two semesters — this summer and fall — for violating the “disruptive conduct” and “harmful behavior” clauses of the student conduct code, the Herald reported.
Stuart said the ruling violates his 21-year-old client's First Amendment rights, and they've appealed it.
“I think the damaging thing here is how does UCF decide what’s morally harmful?” Stuart told the paper. “There was nothing derogatory about it. It was obvious he was making fun of her, but that’s the beauty of the Constitution.”
Image source: WFTV-TV video screenshot
He told the Herald that Lutz "doesn’t want money. He doesn’t want anything. He just wants to go back to school and graduate.”
UCF spokeswoman Courtney Gilmartin told the Herald that "it's important to understand that the process in this case may yet not be complete." In addition, Lutz also must write a paper and give a presentation on how the incident has affected others, WFTV said.
Lutz — a rising senior who's studying sports management, the paper said — isn't happy about the turn of events.
“If they can do that to me, it can happen to almost anybody," he told WFTV. "That’s upsetting."
(H/T: EAGNews)
