Tracking the modern progress of the First Amendment
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 9th, 2008
A Connecticut high school junior is suing her school after administrators disciplined her for using “vulgar speech” on a personal blog.
The student, who was upset about the cancellation of a music festival, called the administration “douchebags” and implored other students contact the school superintendent and “piss him off.”
The school subsequently banned the girl from […]
Posted in Freedom of Speech, Speech in Education on Mar 3rd, 2008
A student at Valdosta State University in Georgia, expelled last year for posting activist flyers on Facebook, says he still doesn’t understand why the administration took such extreme action against him.
The student, Hayden Barnes, was attempting to raise awareness about a new parking garage development being built on campus when he posted the flyer in […]
Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 3rd, 2008
Update on a previous report: The president of Montclair State University in New Jersey announced Thursday that the school’s student-run newspaper—which had been temporarily locked down by the student government in charge of funding it—will be fully funded throughout the rest of the academic year.
President Susan A. Cole also said the Montclarion would be fully […]
Posted in Freedom of Speech on Feb 24th, 2008
The campus gossip website JuicyCampus.com is attracting some negative attention from people who have been offended by the site’s racy content.
JuicyCampus, which has been banned on several college campuses, is a message board that enables users to anonymously post malicious comments about other students – one enlightening post asks, “What sorority houses do the […]
Posted in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press on Feb 24th, 2008
The editorial staff of an online student newspaper at the University of Colorado at Boulder has been ordered to undergo diversity training after the paper published a column containing anti-Asian remarks.
The column, which was initially defended as a satirical piece, advocated that students “hunt” for Asian students at the school, “hog-tie” them, and force them to participate in demeaning activities until “the Asian spirit has been broken.”
The university chancellor apologized Wednesday on behalf of the Campus Press and columnist Max Karsen, adding that “while his column is unquestionably protected under the First Amendment, the sentiments he has expressed are wounding and damaging to a community we hold dear.”
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Posted in Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Speech in Education on Feb 18th, 2008
Friday afternoon I had the privilege of talking with Gene Policinski, executive director of the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University. We discussed a range of issues relating to free speech on college campuses - from the power of the student press to the limits imposed by campus speech codes.
Mr. Policinski recently wrote a column […]
Posted in Freedom of Speech on Feb 18th, 2008
The Yale Daily News printed a criticism Thursday of the legal threats that have been leveled by the Yale Women’s Center against a university fraternity whose pledges posed for photos outside the center with signs that said “We Love Yale Sluts.”
Representatives with the women’s center said they felt threatened while trying to approach the building, […]
Posted in Freedom of the Press on Feb 17th, 2008
Looking for the next LeBron James? If the next up-and-coming high-school sensation happens to play for an Illinois public school, you may never spot him.
Newspapers across the state are coming out against a recent move by the Illinois High School Association to close all public high-school sporting events to press photographers—unless they sign waivers promising […]
Posted in Freedom of the Press, Speech in Education on Feb 16th, 2008
Typically when you hear about a college newspaper being threatened with censorship, budget cuts or a publication freeze, the university administration is the agent pulling the plug. Not so at Montclair State University in New Jersey, where the student governing board ordered the student-run Montclairion newspaper to stop the presses in the midst of threatened […]
Posted in Speech in Education on Feb 2nd, 2008
A Florida public school board voted Thursday in favor of a resolution to pressure state education officials to change recently imposed standards that they regard as a mandate to teach evolution “as scientific fact.”
Members of the Nassau County School Board want the standards to include language “such that evolution is not presented at the exclusion […]
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