Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) has agreed to pay $80,000 to a Christian student after the university violated her first amendment rights, Fox News reports.

Along with this three of the university’s professors have been ordered to undergo first amendment training.

In 2022, Maggie Dejong was in her third year at the university and regularly participated in class discussions on religion, COVID-19 and race issues providing a conservative perspective.

However, things took a bizarre turn last year when the university issued a no-contact order after classmates complained about some of Denjong’s social media posts that dealt with controversial issues such as abortion and defunding the police.

This essentially prevented Dejong from ‘fully participating’ in class discussions. The university also told Dejong’s classmates to keep track of her ‘harmful rhetoric.’ These policies were implemented without Dejong being able to defend herself.

As a result of the court case launched against the SIUE by Alliance Defending Freedom, the university has also revised its policies allowing for freedom of speech on campus.

In its news release, announcing the settlement, ADF Legal Counsel Mathew Hoffmann said:

“Public universities can’t punish students for expressing their political and religious viewpoints. Maggie, like every other student, is protected under the First Amendment to respectfully share her personal beliefs, and university officials were wrong to issue gag orders and silence her speech.“

READ: Illinois college ordered to pay Christian student $80K for silencing conservative views AND SIUE professors to undergo First Amendment training, officials to revise policies as part of settlement