CBS ordered to pay student after expulsion

Students expelled after inviting ‘a lot of filth and body tequila’. They will be compensated.

Six students from Copenhagen Business School (CBS) were expelled when they were behind an event in 2019 where they invited, among other things, ‘a lot of dirt and body tequila’.

But the Danish Parliament’s Ombudsman assessed in 2022 that CBS’s expulsion was disproportionate, and on Wednesday the school was ordered to pay each of the six students 101,250 kroner.

This is evident from the judgment that Ritzau has been informed of by the Court in Frederiksberg.

The students were expelled from school for nine months, which meant they fell a year behind in their studies. They had sued the school, believing they should be compensated for the delay.

In August 2019, the students were supervisors at an introductory course for new students in the bachelor’s degree program HA European Business at CBS.

A few weeks after the end of the course, they invited on Facebook to an event at the ARCH club, which was not sponsored by the school.

“Are you also waiting for the autumn holidays so you can finally relax a bit? Then this shitty arrangement is not for you. Shut up, where is it supposed to be (!!)”.

“We have provided the best of the best when we, in collaboration with ARCH, invite you to ‘Slutty Fall-Break’,” read, among other things, the post.

The students invited to an open bar, ‘so boys, put the card away and instead pour a lot of ‘free’ alcohol on the girls you hope to take home later (or the toilet, if that’s what you’re into).’

Girls were also encouraged to find the ‘lowest-necked sweater, shortest skirt or tightest-fitting dress’.

Finally, the post was signed by the ‘supervisor team’.

The event caused a stir among the newspaper Berlingske, which contacted CBS.

This prompted the school to contact the students, who explained that the post should be seen as a joke, and they immediately changed the event’s name and description.

Mads Pramming is the lawyer for four of the students, who had all demanded around 100,000 kroner, which they ended up getting.

“From here it feels like a pure victory. My clients are super happy,” he says.

According to the lawyer, the court has assessed that it was a gross error of judgment for CBS to expel the students.

According to the lawyer, the court has awarded compensation both for delayed education and for violation of the students’ right to freedom of expression.

The other two students, who were also expelled, had each demanded 500,000 kroner in compensation, but will receive the same as the other four. They are represented by a different lawyer.

The verdict surprises the Dean of Education at CBS, Anna Thomasson.

“We take the verdict very seriously and will look into how we can handle cases like this in the future.”

“It is important for us to learn from the case and ensure that in the future we act in full accordance with both the administrative law principles of proportionality – and our own values,” it says in an email, among other things.

The students had also sued the Danish Agency for Higher Education and Science in the case, which in July 2020 rejected their complaint about the expulsion.

But the board is acquitted in the case.

ritzau