GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Two Grand Valley State University students filed a lawsuit after administrators and police threatened them with arrest for talking with their classmates about free speech – outside of the school’s two small “speech zones.”

Students Joe Tucker and Tim McKeeby, members of the student group “Turning Point USA at Grand Valley State University,” filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against GVSU trustees, President Thomas Haas, and two administrators regarding two different incidents in October, MLive.com reports.

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On Oct. 17, the students contend they were in one of the school’s two small free speech zones and asked students to write messages on a beach ball called the “Free Speech Ball,” then moved in front of the Student Services building to continue the conversation.

The students contend they were soon confronted by campus administrators and police, who threatened to arrest the students for trespassing for not confining their activities to the special zones, WOOD TV reports.

A similar scenario unfolded on Oct. 28, when Turning Point USA members handed out pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution in front of the Student Services building. Administrators told the students to move to a speech zone, and campus police enforced their decree.

The lawsuit, filed with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, alleges the same standard did not apply to students protesting Donald Trump’s historic election victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Student protesters marched around and inside the Student Services building in November without confrontation with school officials, according to the lawsuit.

GVSU’s written policy requires students to obtain a permit to exercise their free speech rights, and to restrict their speech to the two small free speech zones near Carrillon Tower and a “Transformational Link” sculpture on campus. Those areas represent .03 percent of the school’s campus, the lawsuit alleges.

“It is GVSU’s policy – as expressed in the Code of Student Conduct – that students who engage in expressive activities anywhere on GVSU’s campus outside of the two small speech zones have violated the Code of Student Conduct if a University official asks that the students stop such activity and the students do not comply with the request,” the suit reads.

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Those who violate the Code of Student Conduct are subjected to punishments ranging from a written reprimand to expulsion.

“Public universities, which are supposed to be the ultimate marketplace of ideas, shouldn’t be stifling students on more than 99.97 percent of campus,” ADF attorney Tyson Langhofer told MLive.

The lawsuit contends GVSU violates students’ right to free speech, equal protection, and due process, and calls on school officials to allow Turning Point USA to distribute flyers and post signs, hold demonstrations, and engage their classmates in discussions about important political, religious, social, cultural and moral issues, according to the news site.

GVSU spokeswoman Mary Eilleen Lyon issued a statement to WOOD TV about the lawsuit on Thursday, but refused to discuss it further.

“Grand Valley State University embraces the First Amendment and encourages, supports and defends free speech,” the statement read. “The university has not been served with the lawsuit and it is our practice not to comment on pending litigation.”