2 YSU students file federal lawsuit against SGA Elections Board
Sydney Vegoda and Dylan Edwards claim their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated. They say they weren't given due process and treated fairly after a grievance was filed against them while running for President and Vice President of the Student Government Association.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Two YSU students have filed a federal lawsuit claiming their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated. They say they weren't given due process and treated fairly after a grievance was filed against them while running for President and Vice President of the Student Government Association.
"For us, it ended up being a situation we could not ignore or accept," said Sydney Vegoda.
Vegoda and Dylan Edwards, political science majors at YSU, filed the federal lawsuit against the YSU SGA Elections Board, its five student members and faculty adviser.
At the heart of the matter is a grievance accusing the pair of violating a University policy and slandering their opponents, Rayann Atway and Ernie Barkett.
Vegoda and Edwards say they received an email on April 6th stating a grievance was filed regarding unauthorized distribution or dissemination of an audio or video recording or photograph of any person without his or her prior consent. The grievance also included a libel/slander charge for editing a clip of Rayann to obscure her views on transparency.
A hearing was scheduled for April 10th.
Vegoda and Edwards claim they were not given the actual grievance to respond to until 40 minutes prior to the hearing.
"When we went into the hearing we had no information which would allow us to present our case or defend our actions," said Vegoda. "At that point we felt that there was no way to get fair treatment and we decided to take it before the court to rule on the slander issue and on the First Amendment issue as well as the due process and equal protection," she said.
In the lawsuit, Vegoda and Edwards believe the basis for the libel or slander grievance is based upon their political speech, which is protected under the First Amendment. They believe the defendants were seeking to punish Vegoda and Edwards for making comments, statements and social media posts that were critical of their political opponents and the current SGA.
Vegoda and Edwards also claim they have filed several grievances against Atway and Barkett stemming from the same conduct but the Election Board chose not to proceed with those grievance hearings. They say that violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
"One of the things that is so important about this is that there have been no results yet, no results have been released either way, we don't know if we've won or lost but for us it was about the process and being afforded equal protection under the process of running for student government," said Vegoda.
Utilizing their education to the fullest, the future law school students are representing themselves in the lawsuit.
"Who else is gonna do it," said Vagoda.
Vegoda said her uncle was an attorney and was able to give some advice and her internship at the Community Legal Aid provided some background to draft the lawsuit.
"It wasn't too intimidating, it was just something that we decided we were going to follow through on," she said.
They were following through because of a fundamental belief.
"We all deserve to be stood up for, and we all deserve the equal protection and we all deserve our First Amendment rights and we all deserve our constitutional rights," said Vegoda.
Vegoda and Edwards say they filed the lawsuit in federal court because of the First Amendment violation. The lawsuit is asking for a temporary restraining order prohibiting the Elections Board from announcing a winner until the claims are addressed. They are hoping to come to an agreement or settlement with the University though before going to court, but they are willing to follow it through all the way until the end.
"We just want to be treated fairly and not for our sake, but the future, future students and what happens when we graduate and we are gone. Hopefully students are able to look at what we've done and view it positively and move forward and realize that these things should be taken seriously."