It is important to note that Mr. McShane did not block Ann Coulter's speech. A country with free speech needs to teach students the difference between serious discussion of issues and irrational, anti-social ranting. I'm not saying that Ann Coulter is an irrational, anti-social ranter, but one would need to stop and think carefully before deciding one way or the other. I think this is exactly what the Fordham students did. I think it is reasonable to conclude that the Republican students at Fordham decided they didn't want their organization to be identified with Ann Coulter.
How Free Speech Died on Campus
A young activist describes how universities became the most authoritarian institutions in America.
By SOHRAB AHMARI
WSJ
November 16, 2012
At Yale University, you can be prevented from putting an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote on your T-shirt. At Tufts, you can be censured for quoting certain passages from the Quran. Welcome to the most authoritarian institution in America: the modern university—"a bizarre, parallel dimension," as Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, calls it.
Mr. Lukianoff, a 38-year-old Stanford Law grad, has spent the past decade fighting free-speech battles on college campuses. The latest was last week at Fordham University, where President Joseph McShane scolded College Republicans for the sin of inviting Ann Coulter to speak.
"To say that I am disappointed with the judgment and maturity of the College Republicans . . . would be a tremendous understatement," Mr. McShane said in a Nov. 9 statement condemning the club's invitation to the caustic conservative pundit. He vowed to "hold out great contempt for anyone who would intentionally inflict pain on another human being because of their race, gender, sexual orientation, or creed."
To be clear, Mr. McShane didn't block Ms. Coulter's speech, but he said that her presence would serve as a "test" for Fordham. A day later, the students disinvited Ms. Coulter. Mr. McShane then praised them for having taken "responsibility for their decisions" and expressing "their regrets sincerely and eloquently."
Mr. Lukianoff says that the Fordham-Coulter affair took campus censorship to a new level: "This was the longest, strongest condemnation of a speaker that I've ever seen in which a university president also tried to claim that he was defending freedom of speech."
I caught up with Mr. Lukianoff at New York University in downtown Manhattan, where he was once targeted by the same speech restrictions that he has built a career exposing. Six years ago, a student group at the university invited him to participate in a panel discussion about the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that had sparked violent rioting by Muslims across the world.
When Muslim students protested the event, NYU threatened to close the panel to the public if the offending cartoons were displayed. The discussion went on—without the cartoons. Instead, the student hosts displayed a blank easel, registering their own protest.
"The people who believe that colleges and universities are places where we want less freedom of speech have won," Mr. Lukianoff says. "If anything, there should be even greater freedom of speech on college campuses. But now things have been turned around to give campus communities the expectation that if someone's feelings are hurt by something that is said, the university will protect that person. As soon as you allow something as vague as Big Brother protecting your feelings, anything and everything can be punished."
You might say Greg Lukianoff was born to fight college censorship. With his unruly red hair and a voice given to booming, he certainly looks and sounds the part. His ethnically Irish, British-born mother moved to America during the 1960s British-nanny fad, while his Russian father came from Yugoslavia to study at the University of Wisconsin. Russian history, Mr. Lukianoff says, "taught me about the worst things that can happen with good intentions."
Growing up in an immigrant neighborhood in Danbury, Conn., sharpened his views. When "you had so many people from so many different backgrounds, free speech made intuitive sense," Mr. Lukianoff recalls. "In every genuinely diverse community I've ever lived in, freedom of speech had to be the rule. . . . I find it deeply ironic that on college campuses diversity is used as an argument against unbridled freedom of speech."
After graduating from Stanford, where he specialized in First Amendment law, he joined the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an organization co-founded in 1999 by civil-rights lawyer Harvey Silverglate and Alan Charles Kors, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania, to counter the growing but often hidden threats to free speech in academia. FIRE's tactics include waging publicity campaigns intended to embarrass college administrators into dropping speech-related disciplinary charges against individual students, or reversing speech-restricting policies. When that fails, FIRE often takes its cases to court, where it tends to prevail.
In his new book, "Unlearning Liberty," Mr. Lukianoff notes that baby-boom Americans who remember the student protests of the 1960s tend to assume that U.S. colleges are still some of the freest places on earth. But that idealized university no longer exists. It was wiped out in the 1990s by administrators, diversity hustlers and liability-management professionals, who were often abetted by professors committed to political agendas.
"What's disappointing and rightfully scorned," Mr. Lukianoff says, "is that in some cases the very professors who were benefiting from the free-speech movement turned around to advocate speech codes and speech zones in the 1980s and '90s."
Today, university bureaucrats suppress debate with anti-harassment policies that function as de facto speech codes. FIRE maintains a database of such policies on its website, and Mr. Lukianoff's book offers an eye-opening sampling. What they share is a view of "harassment" so broad and so removed from its legal definition that, Mr. Lukianoff says, "literally every student on campus is already guilty."
At Western Michigan University, it is considered harassment to hold a "condescending sex-based attitude." That just about sums up the line "I think of all Harvard men as sissies" (from F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1920 novel "This Side of Paradise"), a quote that was banned at Yale when students put it on a T-shirt. Tufts University in Boston proscribes the holding of "sexist attitudes," and a student newspaper there was found guilty of harassment in 2007 for printing violent passages from the Quran and facts about the status of women in Saudi Arabia during the school's "Islamic Awareness Week."
At California State University in Chico, it was prohibited until recently to engage in "continual use of generic masculine terms such as to refer to people of both sexes or references to both men and women as necessarily heterosexual." Luckily, there is no need to try to figure out what the school was talking about—the prohibition was removed earlier this year after FIRE named it as one of its two "Speech Codes of the Year" in 2011.
At Northeastern University, where I went to law school, it is a violation of the Internet-usage policy to transmit any message "which in the sole judgment" of administrators is "annoying."
Conservatives and libertarians are especially vulnerable to such charges of harassment. Even though Mr. Lukianoff's efforts might aid those censorship victims, he hardly counts himself as one of them: He says that he is a lifelong Democrat and a "passionate believer" in gay marriage and abortion rights. And free speech. "If you're going to get in trouble for an opinion on campus, it's more likely for a socially conservative opinion."
Consider the two students at Colorado College who were punished in 2008 for satirizing a gender-studies newsletter. The newsletter had included boisterous references to "male castration," "feminist porn" and other unprintable matters. The satire, published by the "Coalition of Some Dudes," tamely discussed "chainsaw etiquette" ("your chainsaw is not an indoor toy") and offered quotations from Teddy Roosevelt and menshealth.com. The college found the student satirists guilty of "the juxtaposition of weaponry and sexuality."
"Even when we win our cases," says Mr. Lukianoff, "the universities almost never apologize to the students they hurt or the faculty they drag through the mud." Brandeis University has yet to withdraw a 2007 finding of racial harassment against Prof. Donald Hindley for explaining the origins of "wetback" in a Latin-American Studies course. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis apologized to a janitor found guilty of harassment—for reading a book celebrating the defeat of the Ku Klux Klan in the presence of two black colleagues—but only after protests by FIRE and an op-ed in these pages by Dorothy Rabinowitz.
What motivates college administrators to act so viciously? "It's both self-interest and ideological commitment," Mr. Lukianoff says. On the ideological front, "it's almost like you flip a switch, and these administrators, who talk so much about treating every student with dignity and compassion, suddenly come to see one student as a caricature of societal evil."
Administrative self-interest is also at work. "There's been this huge expansion in the bureaucratic class at universities," Mr. Lukianoff explains. "They passed the number of people involved in instruction sometime around 2006. So you get this ever-renewing crop of administrators, and their jobs aren't instruction but to police student behavior. In the worst cases, they see it as their duty to intervene on students' deepest beliefs."
Consider the University of Delaware, which in fall 2007 instituted an ideological orientation for freshmen. The "treatment," as the administrators called it, included personal interviews that probed students' private lives with such questions as: "When did you discover your sexual identity?" Students were taught in group sessions that the term racist "applies to all white people" while "people of color cannot be racists." Once FIRE spotlighted it, the university dismantled the program.
Yet in March 2012, Kathleen Kerr, the architect of the Delaware program, was elected vice president of the American College Personnel Association, the professional group of university administrators.
A 2010 survey by the American Association of Colleges and Universities found that of 24,000 college students, only 35.6% strongly agreed that "it is safe to hold unpopular views on campus." When the question was asked of 9,000 campus professionals—who are more familiar with the enforcement end of the censorship rules—only 18.8% strongly agreed.
Mr. Lukianoff thinks all of this should alarm students, parents and alumni enough to demand change: "If just a handful more students came in knowing what administrators are doing at orientation programs, with harassment codes, or free-speech zones—if students knew this was wrong—we could really change things."
The trouble is that students are usually intimidated into submission. "The startling majority of students don't bother. They're too concerned about their careers, too concerned about their grades, to bother fighting back," he says.
Showing posts with label student free speech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label student free speech. Show all posts
Monday, November 19, 2012
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Terrifying Teen Speech in the News Again
The case below reminded me of this story from the Los Angeles Times: Patrick Judd refuses to allow valedictorian to make a speech...and fires her from her summer job.
Terrifying Teen Speech in the News Again
Garrett Epps
The Atlantic
AUG 24 2012
What kind of democracy teaches its young people they'll be punished for talking out of turn?
If there's one belief that unites Americans, it's that First Amendment freedom of speech is a good thing. Everybody should have it: cigarette companies, SuperPACs, hate groups, Todd Akin, Cher, and Nichole Ritchie.
Teenagers, not so much. They might say something wrong. Better to shut them up.
The last time the issue of impudent teen speech came up in this column, my comments page was swamped with suggestions that the problem wasn't free speech, it was rudeness. Teens, you see, can't be allowed to be rude. The saucy-teen issue has surfaced again, this time in the person of a high-school valedictorian in a small Oklahoma town who used the phrase "what the hell" in a graduation speech and has been punished with the withholding of her diploma.
What the hell?
Is this really how a free country treats its young adults? And will the "good manners" brigade rally around this latest episode of petty grown-up bullying?
Kaitlin Nootbaar topped her class at Prague High School in Prague, Oklahoma. She has won a full scholarship to Southwest Oklahoma State University, where she hopes to study biology. Any sane school would be boasting about her.
But Prague High Principal David Smith has apparently decided to punish Kaitlin because in her valedictory address she said that, when people ask her what she wants to be, she responds, "How the hell should I know? I've changed my mind so many times." According to Kaitlin and her father, Smith said there will be no diploma until she tenders a written apology. Kaitlin, bless her spunky heartland heart, has refused.
The manners brigade is sure to point out that Kaitlin was required to submit her speech in advance, and that the text she submitted used the word "heck." She has told reporters that in the excitement of the moment, she used "hell" instead -- in part because it echoes the graduation speech in Twilight: Eclipse.
If that's true, she's guilty of nothing more than bad taste in entertainment, and Principal Smith should be apologizing to her for the poor education she received. But what if this saucy miss actually intended all along to say "hell," and submitted the bowdlerized text to prevent the Principal from stopping her? Surely that makes her the offender, and Principal Smith the victim?...
Terrifying Teen Speech in the News Again
Garrett Epps
The Atlantic
AUG 24 2012
What kind of democracy teaches its young people they'll be punished for talking out of turn?
If there's one belief that unites Americans, it's that First Amendment freedom of speech is a good thing. Everybody should have it: cigarette companies, SuperPACs, hate groups, Todd Akin, Cher, and Nichole Ritchie.
Teenagers, not so much. They might say something wrong. Better to shut them up.
The last time the issue of impudent teen speech came up in this column, my comments page was swamped with suggestions that the problem wasn't free speech, it was rudeness. Teens, you see, can't be allowed to be rude. The saucy-teen issue has surfaced again, this time in the person of a high-school valedictorian in a small Oklahoma town who used the phrase "what the hell" in a graduation speech and has been punished with the withholding of her diploma.
What the hell?
Is this really how a free country treats its young adults? And will the "good manners" brigade rally around this latest episode of petty grown-up bullying?
Kaitlin Nootbaar topped her class at Prague High School in Prague, Oklahoma. She has won a full scholarship to Southwest Oklahoma State University, where she hopes to study biology. Any sane school would be boasting about her.
But Prague High Principal David Smith has apparently decided to punish Kaitlin because in her valedictory address she said that, when people ask her what she wants to be, she responds, "How the hell should I know? I've changed my mind so many times." According to Kaitlin and her father, Smith said there will be no diploma until she tenders a written apology. Kaitlin, bless her spunky heartland heart, has refused.
The manners brigade is sure to point out that Kaitlin was required to submit her speech in advance, and that the text she submitted used the word "heck." She has told reporters that in the excitement of the moment, she used "hell" instead -- in part because it echoes the graduation speech in Twilight: Eclipse.
If that's true, she's guilty of nothing more than bad taste in entertainment, and Principal Smith should be apologizing to her for the poor education she received. But what if this saucy miss actually intended all along to say "hell," and submitted the bowdlerized text to prevent the Principal from stopping her? Surely that makes her the offender, and Principal Smith the victim?...
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
It turns out that our local ACLU lead attorney David Blair-Loy does have a little bit of spine after all
At the last ACLU general meeting in San Diego, David Blair-Loy said litigation is the "worst alternative." His preferred alternative is negotiation in a highly civil manner with school attorneys behind closed doors. He's been negotiating with Southwestern College for over a year regarding free speech for employees. He's apparently not into free speech for adults in schools: he even sent me an email telling me I'd better stop talking about school attorneys. He didn't tell me to stop making a specific objecthttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifionable statement--he told me to stop talking about them altogether!!!
But it looks like he does support free speech for students (at least as long as no attorneys are being criticized).
La Jolla High's Bench Ban Draws ACLU Ire
May 17, 2011
by Randy Dotinga
Voice of San Diego
The ACLU is suing the school district over La Jolla High's refusal to allow political messages to be painted on "senior benches," the U-T reports. The paper says the principal ordered that messages regarding Iran be covered up, "saying the benches were reserved for positive messages of school spirit."
An authority-challenging student followed up with messages saying "Freedom for LJHS & Iran" and "Ed. Code 48907," a reference to a section of the state Education Code that supports free speech for students. You can guess what happened to those messages: they got covered up too.
At least students got a nice lesson in irony.
ACLU sues school district over bench dispute
La Jolla High principal ordered student messages covered up
By Maureen Magee
SDUT
May 16, 2011
The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the San Diego school district Monday, claiming that La Jolla High School illegally blotted out political messages painted by Iranian-American students on “senior benches” that have long served as an open forum on campus.
Students supportive of the Middle Eastern anti-government movement painted “Freedom For Iran,” and “Down with Dictator,” on three concrete benches in February following a massive protest in Iran. But hours later, the principal had the messages covered up, saying the benches were reserved for positive messages of school spirit.
The American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial counties argues that La Jolla High’s benches have been painted and repainted for years — with no established standard for monitoring the benches, and that “positive messages” is a “vague and unconstitutional standard for curtailing student speech.”
The ACLU is seeking unspecified damages and it hopes to force the school to open up the benches to all students who want to express their freedom of speech.
“Our hope is that La Jolla High School will recognize that the benches are within the free speech protection of the California law,” said Kevin Keenan, executive director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial counties. “These benches have been a glorious forum for free speech at La Jolla High for years. And unless the messages are obscene, libelous or slanderous, they should be allowed under the law.”
The San Diego Unified School District would not comment on the lawsuit that was filed in San Diego Superior Court. A spokesman said the district has not been served legal papers and would not respond until it can formally review such documents.
La Jolla High senior Yasamin Elahi, who painted the original messages that launched the free speech debate, chose not to get involved in the lawsuit. But she said she supports the effort to promote civil rights on her campus.
“I never did any of this to get attention or hurt my school,” said Yasamin, president of the campus Persian Club. “I wrote the messages so kids would realize that there is a lot going on outside the world in La Jolla that they live in. I also want them to fight for free speech.”
Upset that Elahi’s messages were blotted out, La Jolla High senior Yumehiko Hoshijima painted “Freedom for LJHS & Iran” along with “Ed. Code 48907,” on the benches — messages that were also whitewashed by the administration. Yumehiko is working with the ACLU on the lawsuit.
The ACLU said it tried unsuccessfully to work to resolve the matter without litigation but that the district responded negatively.
But it looks like he does support free speech for students (at least as long as no attorneys are being criticized).
La Jolla High's Bench Ban Draws ACLU Ire
May 17, 2011
by Randy Dotinga
Voice of San Diego
The ACLU is suing the school district over La Jolla High's refusal to allow political messages to be painted on "senior benches," the U-T reports. The paper says the principal ordered that messages regarding Iran be covered up, "saying the benches were reserved for positive messages of school spirit."
An authority-challenging student followed up with messages saying "Freedom for LJHS & Iran" and "Ed. Code 48907," a reference to a section of the state Education Code that supports free speech for students. You can guess what happened to those messages: they got covered up too.
At least students got a nice lesson in irony.
ACLU sues school district over bench dispute
La Jolla High principal ordered student messages covered up
By Maureen Magee
SDUT
May 16, 2011
The ACLU filed a lawsuit against the San Diego school district Monday, claiming that La Jolla High School illegally blotted out political messages painted by Iranian-American students on “senior benches” that have long served as an open forum on campus.
Students supportive of the Middle Eastern anti-government movement painted “Freedom For Iran,” and “Down with Dictator,” on three concrete benches in February following a massive protest in Iran. But hours later, the principal had the messages covered up, saying the benches were reserved for positive messages of school spirit.
The American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial counties argues that La Jolla High’s benches have been painted and repainted for years — with no established standard for monitoring the benches, and that “positive messages” is a “vague and unconstitutional standard for curtailing student speech.”
The ACLU is seeking unspecified damages and it hopes to force the school to open up the benches to all students who want to express their freedom of speech.
“Our hope is that La Jolla High School will recognize that the benches are within the free speech protection of the California law,” said Kevin Keenan, executive director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial counties. “These benches have been a glorious forum for free speech at La Jolla High for years. And unless the messages are obscene, libelous or slanderous, they should be allowed under the law.”
The San Diego Unified School District would not comment on the lawsuit that was filed in San Diego Superior Court. A spokesman said the district has not been served legal papers and would not respond until it can formally review such documents.
La Jolla High senior Yasamin Elahi, who painted the original messages that launched the free speech debate, chose not to get involved in the lawsuit. But she said she supports the effort to promote civil rights on her campus.
“I never did any of this to get attention or hurt my school,” said Yasamin, president of the campus Persian Club. “I wrote the messages so kids would realize that there is a lot going on outside the world in La Jolla that they live in. I also want them to fight for free speech.”
Upset that Elahi’s messages were blotted out, La Jolla High senior Yumehiko Hoshijima painted “Freedom for LJHS & Iran” along with “Ed. Code 48907,” on the benches — messages that were also whitewashed by the administration. Yumehiko is working with the ACLU on the lawsuit.
The ACLU said it tried unsuccessfully to work to resolve the matter without litigation but that the district responded negatively.
Friday, July 16, 2010
It's time for David Blair-Loy to stop mincing around and sue Southwestern College, already
Who's side is he really on? David Loy discusses lawsuits spearheaded by other chapters of the ACLU at Thomas Jefferson School of Law on Aug. 24, 2011. UPDATE FEB. 2012: It's beginning to be clear that San Diego ACLU's David Loy is not a big fan of free speech about what's really going on in public schools.
See other new posts re David Loy and earlier posts under his former name of David Blair-Loy.
UPDATE: July 22, 2010
I am more concerned than ever about the motivations of local ACLU head counsel David Blair-Loy. He seems deeply concerned with his own career, as evidenced by the effort he must have put in to get busy lawyers to participate in the Daily Transcript's yearly opportunity for lawyers to promote themselves.
The Daily Transcript does not evaluate the lawyers it chooses as "Top Lawyers" of the year; there is no panel of experts making the choice. Nor do all the lawyers in town participate in the vote.
Instead, the voters select themselves. To win, a lawyer has to get his pals to send in ballots. (There is even a section for insurance lawyers.) The Daily Transcript seems to be promoting itself by exploiting lawyers who feel the need to promote themselves. The most highly regarded lawyers do not seem to participate in this contest.
David Blair-Loy has exerted himself mightily for two years in a row to become one of the many "winners" of this contest.
See all ACLU posts.
See all Southwestern College posts.
David Blair-Loy, legal counsel for the San Diego ACLU, gets along too well with school attorneys. He even got an award from the bar association for "high civility" in dealing with them, and with other attorneys.
But the situation at Southwestern has gone on long enough. It's time to stop writing letters to Jonathan Pearl and Raj Chopra, and to take some action.
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Ralph Opacic says charter schools are exempt from the US Constitution
...Ralph Opacic, the charter school's president and executive director, issued a statement defending administrators, arguing that charter schools were exempted from the law defining student rights.
Even if this teacher lost her job because of unrelated issues, this is still an important story. I would really like to know why the students wrote about the religion of the food service providers. Was religion a factor in hiring the caterer? Is that what the school wanted to cover up?
Orange County boots journalism teacher after censorship faceoff
July 6, 2010
Erica Perez
An Orange County high school newspaper and yearbook adviser who stood up to the school's administration when it threatened to censor the paper has been dismissed, prompting accusations of retaliation.
Konnie Krislock, adviser at Orange County High School of the Arts, got a letter June 20 saying she had been dismissed – less than a year after Krislock had a very public dust-up with Principal Sue Vaughn last fall, according to the Student Press Law Center...
The story began last September, when Vaughn tried to stop publication of the student newspaper, Evolution, because a story about the school's new food services vendor described the company, Alegre Foods as a "Christian-based company" whose purpose is to serve God, according to a report in the Orange County Register.
Krislock said the school – a public charter school – was illegally censoring the student press. Ultimately, the school administration allowed the paper to publish without pre-approval.
But the controversy didn't end there. A few days after the school backed down, Ralph Opacic, the charter school's president and executive director, issued a statement defending administrators, arguing that charter schools were exempted from the law defining student rights.
That in turn prompted state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, to sponsor SB 438. The law would make provisions regarding free speech for public school students specifically applicable to charter schools. It has been unanimously approved by the state Senate, cleared the Assembly Appropriations Committee and will go before the full Assembly soon, the Student Press Law Center reports...
Even if this teacher lost her job because of unrelated issues, this is still an important story. I would really like to know why the students wrote about the religion of the food service providers. Was religion a factor in hiring the caterer? Is that what the school wanted to cover up?
Orange County boots journalism teacher after censorship faceoff
July 6, 2010
Erica Perez
An Orange County high school newspaper and yearbook adviser who stood up to the school's administration when it threatened to censor the paper has been dismissed, prompting accusations of retaliation.
Konnie Krislock, adviser at Orange County High School of the Arts, got a letter June 20 saying she had been dismissed – less than a year after Krislock had a very public dust-up with Principal Sue Vaughn last fall, according to the Student Press Law Center...
The story began last September, when Vaughn tried to stop publication of the student newspaper, Evolution, because a story about the school's new food services vendor described the company, Alegre Foods as a "Christian-based company" whose purpose is to serve God, according to a report in the Orange County Register.
Krislock said the school – a public charter school – was illegally censoring the student press. Ultimately, the school administration allowed the paper to publish without pre-approval.
But the controversy didn't end there. A few days after the school backed down, Ralph Opacic, the charter school's president and executive director, issued a statement defending administrators, arguing that charter schools were exempted from the law defining student rights.
That in turn prompted state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, to sponsor SB 438. The law would make provisions regarding free speech for public school students specifically applicable to charter schools. It has been unanimously approved by the state Senate, cleared the Assembly Appropriations Committee and will go before the full Assembly soon, the Student Press Law Center reports...
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Southwestern College named one of nation’s worst First Amendment violators
See all posts on Southwestern College.
College administration named one of nation’s worst First Amendment violators
The Southwestern Sun
By Anthony Dacong
May 4, 2010
One of America’s leading defenders of free speech has named Southwestern College one of the nation’s 10 worst violators of the First Amendment for 2010.
SWC Superintendent Dr. Raj K. Chopra and Vice President of Business and Financial Affairs Nicholas Alioto were singled out for criticism by the Virginia-based Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression “for promulgating and enforcing a policy limiting even peaceful and non-disruptive protests to a designated ‘free speech’ patio.” The Jefferson Center awarded its notorious “Jefferson Muzzle” to the college for events that arose from an October 22, 2009 student rally and a February 2010 effort by students to collect signatures for a petition to recall three SWC Governing Board members.
College administration named one of nation’s worst First Amendment violators
The Southwestern Sun
By Anthony Dacong
May 4, 2010
One of America’s leading defenders of free speech has named Southwestern College one of the nation’s 10 worst violators of the First Amendment for 2010.
SWC Superintendent Dr. Raj K. Chopra and Vice President of Business and Financial Affairs Nicholas Alioto were singled out for criticism by the Virginia-based Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression “for promulgating and enforcing a policy limiting even peaceful and non-disruptive protests to a designated ‘free speech’ patio.” The Jefferson Center awarded its notorious “Jefferson Muzzle” to the college for events that arose from an October 22, 2009 student rally and a February 2010 effort by students to collect signatures for a petition to recall three SWC Governing Board members.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Judge: Lesbian student's rights violated
See UPDATE.
Judge: Lesbian student's rights violated
By Chris Joyner, USA TODAY
March 23, 2010
ABERDEEN, Miss. — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Itawamba County, Miss., school board violated the rights of a lesbian student by canceling the prom when the student challenged a ban on same-sex dates, but the judge stopped short of ordering the district to reinstate the April 2 prom.
U.S. District Court Judge Glen Davidson said he denied the injunction request because a private prom parents are planning will serve the same purpose as the school prom and because "requiring defendants to step back into a sponsorship role at this late date would only confuse and confound the community on the issue."
NIXED PROM: Lesbian gets day in court
Constance McMillen, 18, and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Itawamba County school district when she was denied her request to bring her girlfriend, a sophomore, to the dance and to wear a tuxedo.
McMillen said she was saddened that the judge did not reinstate the school-sponsored prom, but she understood his reasoning since the private prom is scheduled for the same day in Tupelo.
"It would be hard for him to move it," she said. "A lot of people would be inconvenienced."
Davidson ruled the school board violated McMillen's rights. "The Court finds this expression and communication of her viewpoint is the type of speech that falls squarely within the purview of the First Amendment," Davidson wrote in his opinion...
Judge: Lesbian student's rights violated
By Chris Joyner, USA TODAY
March 23, 2010
ABERDEEN, Miss. — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Itawamba County, Miss., school board violated the rights of a lesbian student by canceling the prom when the student challenged a ban on same-sex dates, but the judge stopped short of ordering the district to reinstate the April 2 prom.
U.S. District Court Judge Glen Davidson said he denied the injunction request because a private prom parents are planning will serve the same purpose as the school prom and because "requiring defendants to step back into a sponsorship role at this late date would only confuse and confound the community on the issue."
NIXED PROM: Lesbian gets day in court
Constance McMillen, 18, and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Itawamba County school district when she was denied her request to bring her girlfriend, a sophomore, to the dance and to wear a tuxedo.
McMillen said she was saddened that the judge did not reinstate the school-sponsored prom, but she understood his reasoning since the private prom is scheduled for the same day in Tupelo.
"It would be hard for him to move it," she said. "A lot of people would be inconvenienced."
Davidson ruled the school board violated McMillen's rights. "The Court finds this expression and communication of her viewpoint is the type of speech that falls squarely within the purview of the First Amendment," Davidson wrote in his opinion...
Saturday, February 27, 2010
UC San Diego students storm chancellor’s office after noose found
Courtesy of San Diego 6 CW
It's like old times at UCSD. When I was there in the late 60s I remember the kids did a lock-out of the administration offices: they put putty in the locks.
I can't believe that forty years later so little progress has been made on achieving equality for African Americans.
See all posts on UCSD racial incident.
UC San Diego students storm chancellor’s office after noose found
By Elliot Spagat
Associated Press
February 27, 2010
Anger boiled over on the University of California San Diego campus Friday, where students took over the chancellor’s office for several hours to protest the hanging of a noose in a campus library.
Students wearing red handkerchiefs over their faces blocked the doors to Chancellor Marye Anne Fox’s offices for hours, while more students inside chanted “Real pain, real change.”
They left the office peacefully at sundown, about the same time that leaders of the university’s Black Student Union ended talks with administrators in a nearby conference room over demands that include more boosting the African-American curriculum and campus activities. A university spokesman, Jeff Gattas, said there were no arrests and no property was damaged during the takeover.
The noose found dangling from a light fixture on the seventh floor of Geisel Library on Thursday night was the latest in a string of racially charged incidents in the university community, authorities said Friday. Less than two weeks ago, an off-campus party mocking Black History Month ignited racial tensions...
NEW COMMENTARY BY SDNN
...First, there was the KoalaTV program that discussed the fallout from the party, in which its editor, Kris Gregorian, 25, dropped the N-bomb. KoalaTV, a student-run, closed-circuit station, has a reputation for inciting controversy across campus, all in the name of “free speech and the First Amendment.” Gregorian, as seen in a column by the Union-Tribune’s Michael Stetz, has proven himself to be at best an insensitive, agitating windbag, and at worst an antagonistic bigot...
It's like old times at UCSD. When I was there in the late 60s I remember the kids did a lock-out of the administration offices: they put putty in the locks.
I can't believe that forty years later so little progress has been made on achieving equality for African Americans.
See all posts on UCSD racial incident.
UC San Diego students storm chancellor’s office after noose found
By Elliot Spagat
Associated Press
February 27, 2010
Anger boiled over on the University of California San Diego campus Friday, where students took over the chancellor’s office for several hours to protest the hanging of a noose in a campus library.
Students wearing red handkerchiefs over their faces blocked the doors to Chancellor Marye Anne Fox’s offices for hours, while more students inside chanted “Real pain, real change.”
They left the office peacefully at sundown, about the same time that leaders of the university’s Black Student Union ended talks with administrators in a nearby conference room over demands that include more boosting the African-American curriculum and campus activities. A university spokesman, Jeff Gattas, said there were no arrests and no property was damaged during the takeover.
The noose found dangling from a light fixture on the seventh floor of Geisel Library on Thursday night was the latest in a string of racially charged incidents in the university community, authorities said Friday. Less than two weeks ago, an off-campus party mocking Black History Month ignited racial tensions...
NEW COMMENTARY BY SDNN
...First, there was the KoalaTV program that discussed the fallout from the party, in which its editor, Kris Gregorian, 25, dropped the N-bomb. KoalaTV, a student-run, closed-circuit station, has a reputation for inciting controversy across campus, all in the name of “free speech and the First Amendment.” Gregorian, as seen in a column by the Union-Tribune’s Michael Stetz, has proven himself to be at best an insensitive, agitating windbag, and at worst an antagonistic bigot...
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Hundreds of students walk out of ‘teach-in’ at UCSD
Photo: Dave Schwab
Hundreds of students walk out of ‘teach-in’ at UCSD
La Jolla Light
By James R. Riffel, City News Service
February 24, 2010
See all posts about racial incident at UCSD.
Thousands of students and administrators attended a “teach-in” at UC San Diego Wednesday to address a recent ghetto-themed party intended to mock Black History Month and the racial unrest it sparked on campus, but the event was disrupted when the bulk of students in attendance walked out.
About an hour into the event at the university’s student center, two female students with the Black Student Union stood up and blasted the teach-in, with one saying, “The university and our community will not be fixed by a two-hour teach-in.”
Saying the university was doing little to address racism on campus, the pair urged their fellow students in the packed auditorium and overflow room to march out of the event, and the vast majority complied. The students filed out of the auditorium, loudly chanting “Whose university? Our university!”
The students then gathered en masse outside the auditorium, continuing to chant. Members of the Black Student Union work black T-shirts with the slogan “Real Pain Real Action.”
About 3,000 people gathered at the teach-in and resulting demonstration — with whites making up about half of the crowd. About 2 percent of UCSD’s students are black...
Hundreds of students walk out of ‘teach-in’ at UCSD
La Jolla Light
By James R. Riffel, City News Service
February 24, 2010
See all posts about racial incident at UCSD.
Thousands of students and administrators attended a “teach-in” at UC San Diego Wednesday to address a recent ghetto-themed party intended to mock Black History Month and the racial unrest it sparked on campus, but the event was disrupted when the bulk of students in attendance walked out.
About an hour into the event at the university’s student center, two female students with the Black Student Union stood up and blasted the teach-in, with one saying, “The university and our community will not be fixed by a two-hour teach-in.”
Saying the university was doing little to address racism on campus, the pair urged their fellow students in the packed auditorium and overflow room to march out of the event, and the vast majority complied. The students filed out of the auditorium, loudly chanting “Whose university? Our university!”
The students then gathered en masse outside the auditorium, continuing to chant. Members of the Black Student Union work black T-shirts with the slogan “Real Pain Real Action.”
About 3,000 people gathered at the teach-in and resulting demonstration — with whites making up about half of the crowd. About 2 percent of UCSD’s students are black...
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Compton Cookout has us wondering whatever happened to togas
Looking back to a happier time, Mike Stetz asks, "Whatever happened to togas?"See all posts about racial incident at UCSD.
Bring your invitation and your ignorance
By Michael Stetz
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE COLUMNIST
February 21, 2010
It’s no surprise that college kids like to throw parties. You might be surprised by the kind of parties that some like to throw, though.
We got something of an idea last week when a number of UCSD students helped arrange a party called the “Compton Cookout,” which ridiculed African-Americans on the occasion of Black History Month.
That’s actually a more common party theme than you might think. They also go by the names “Pimps and Hos,” and “Gangsta” or “Ghetto” parties.
At these gangsta parties, students wear gold chains. They drink malt liquor. They flash gang signs.
Fraternities also have thrown parties making fun of Latinos. At Santa Clara University, students came dressed as gardeners and janitors. Some of the women put balloons under their shirts to look pregnant.
Poor white people are targets, too. A fraternity at the University of Idaho throws a big one at the end of the year. Partyers wear overalls and John Deere caps to the “White Trash Trailer Bash.”
Here’s another party concept: “Mekong Delta.” At the University of Florida, male students dressed up as U.S. soldiers and the women as Vietnamese prostitutes.
Whatever happened to togas?
So why is this happening? Daniel Widener, who teaches African-American history at UCSD, believes that the lack of black students on college campuses is partly to blame.
“The Cosby Show” probably boasted more blacks than UCSD. So the other students rarely get a chance to interact with average, everyday blacks, Widener said.
They get their cues from TV, which often portrays young blacks as gangsters and thugs, Widener said. And they aren’t told when they’re crossing the line because there’s no one to tell them so.
Society, in general, has tired of hearing about the plight of minorities, Widener said. That’s particularly true now, given how the economy is hurting all people, whites included. So fewer college students feel empathy.
They may even feel threatened by the rise of minorities, such as President Barack Obama.
Some students said that those involved in the party are not racists. They’re just normal guys who weren’t thinking, said Debbie Sert, a member of the sorority TriDelta.
“They were trying to be funny,” Sert said. “But it was ridiculous. I’d never take part in it.”
On campus last week, she was selling calendars that pictured members of different campus fraternities. The money is going to a local hospital.
“We’re shocked because it’s not what the Greek community is about,” Sert said.
Members of Pi Kappa Alpha — also known as Pike — the fraternity in question, are pictured in the calendar. They represent the month of August and are pictured in Speedos and holding foam noodles, which help keep you afloat.
In the back of the calendar is another picture of the students. There, they have the noodles sticking out from their crotches.
They’ve since cleared out their Web site, which had pictures of them partying. And partying.
They wouldn’t return phone calls or e-mails.
UCSD got hit with more controversy when a student-run television show was aired Thursday defending the students who threw the party and criticizing blacks for being offended.
Regardless of how anyone feels about what the students did — and some feel it was no big deal, that it was just a joke — some argue the students do indeed have the right to have their party.
Gene Policinski of the First Amendment Center in Nashville, Tenn., noted how the First Amendment “allows people to say hurtful and insulting things.”
It would be wrong to suppress it, Policinski said. Indeed, it sometimes works out better if such speech is aired. That way, people can rally to fight against it.
“It promotes more speech,” he said.
That’s already happening at UCSD. For one thing, the party invitation, which described “ghetto chicks” as having “short nappy hair” and “cheap weave,” turned viral because people were outraged over it.
And the incident is sparking a loud call for the university to do a better job in recruiting blacks and fostering a more welcoming campus.
One of the colleges there is named after Thurgood Marshall. Let’s see if they can start living up to it.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
A second Compton Cookout is planned
See all posts about UCSD's "Compton Cookout"
Would someone please invite Mike Radazzo to a party? He's never been to one that wasn't about making fun of someone.
What's fun or funny about denigrating a group of people? Of course, it is possible to tell a funny ethnic joke, but that involves some subtlety, some thought. Humor requires the juxtaposition of the unexpected, and it's best when it involves some insight, perhaps poking fun at someone with pretensions. I'm Irish, and I always liked the one about the Irish priest who refused to say a mass for a dead horse until he heard the sum of money that the horse's owner was offering. "Why didn't you tell me your horse was Catholic?" the priest then asks. Good ethnic humor is merely a clever insight about human beings wrapped in the trappings of a given culture.
It doesn't sound like the Compton cookout involved any actual humor, just put downs intended to make the party goers feel superior. Mr. Radazzo doesn't understand that the target of fun has to buy into the idea or it's not fun, it's harmful.
Here Mr. Radazzo justifies his efforts to have another Compton cookout:
"If your intent is to make fun and not to harm anyone, and you really aren't trying to hurt anyone's feelings, then it's different from trying to cut someone down on purpose," Randazzo said.
He claims he has never been to a party that was not a mockery of something.
“On Cinco de Mayo, we have parties making fun of Mexicans; on Veterans Day, we make fun of veterans (yes, the same veterans who uphold our rights to free speech); on St. Patrick's Day we make fun of the Irish. Everyone gets made fun of out of jest now, not hate,” the invitation read.
--from Channel 6 Sam Diego
'Compton Party Part Deux' Organizer Defends His Actions
Racial tensions boil at UCSD
By MICHELLE WAYLAND
Feb 21, 2010
The racial tension at UCSD is boiling over for many and it may get worse.
Another invitation has surfaced on Facebook to an off campus "Compton Party Part Deux" party encouraging partygoers to “come to this party in honor of your favorite cultural stereotype.”
"We pretty much want people to just choose a culture and harmlessly poke fun at it," Mike Randazzo told NBC San Diego...
Would someone please invite Mike Radazzo to a party? He's never been to one that wasn't about making fun of someone.
What's fun or funny about denigrating a group of people? Of course, it is possible to tell a funny ethnic joke, but that involves some subtlety, some thought. Humor requires the juxtaposition of the unexpected, and it's best when it involves some insight, perhaps poking fun at someone with pretensions. I'm Irish, and I always liked the one about the Irish priest who refused to say a mass for a dead horse until he heard the sum of money that the horse's owner was offering. "Why didn't you tell me your horse was Catholic?" the priest then asks. Good ethnic humor is merely a clever insight about human beings wrapped in the trappings of a given culture.
It doesn't sound like the Compton cookout involved any actual humor, just put downs intended to make the party goers feel superior. Mr. Radazzo doesn't understand that the target of fun has to buy into the idea or it's not fun, it's harmful.
Here Mr. Radazzo justifies his efforts to have another Compton cookout:
"If your intent is to make fun and not to harm anyone, and you really aren't trying to hurt anyone's feelings, then it's different from trying to cut someone down on purpose," Randazzo said.
He claims he has never been to a party that was not a mockery of something.
“On Cinco de Mayo, we have parties making fun of Mexicans; on Veterans Day, we make fun of veterans (yes, the same veterans who uphold our rights to free speech); on St. Patrick's Day we make fun of the Irish. Everyone gets made fun of out of jest now, not hate,” the invitation read.
--from Channel 6 Sam Diego
'Compton Party Part Deux' Organizer Defends His Actions
Racial tensions boil at UCSD
By MICHELLE WAYLAND
Feb 21, 2010
The racial tension at UCSD is boiling over for many and it may get worse.
Another invitation has surfaced on Facebook to an off campus "Compton Party Part Deux" party encouraging partygoers to “come to this party in honor of your favorite cultural stereotype.”
"We pretty much want people to just choose a culture and harmlessly poke fun at it," Mike Randazzo told NBC San Diego...
Saturday, February 20, 2010
New UCSD racial incident sparks rage, confrontation
Marc Balanky / Union-Tribune
See all posts about UCSD's "Compton Cookout"
Should public funds be given to "journalists" to shower contempt on minority students, making them want to leave UCSD?
Should fraternities support this type of journalism?
The free speech issue is very important, making this a tough situation. Our society benefits from free speech, but is harmed as it becomes less inclusive.
It's important for all of us that African American citizens become educated and allowed to fully participate in public higher education. In a way the situation is analogous to the Sally Smith situation. The Koala "journalists" don't want irritating "loud" black girls around; the teachers at Serra don't want "irritating" Sally Smith around. The urge to silence voices that make us uncomfortable is rampant in America. Situations with competing moral values, such as freedom of speech v. equal treatment of and participation by all people in our society, are far more tricky than simple questions of right and wrong. It seems to me that UCSD needs to teach students to think more carefully about these issues.
KRIS GREGORIAN
Kris Gregorian and his friends would have us think that he has contempt for black girls because one cute black girl yelled at him at a softball game. I think the reverse is true: Kris Gregorian and friends are racists, and they use an outburst, similar to outbursts I've heard time and again by white girls with extroverted personalities and a sense of fun, to justify their contempt. Apparently the Koala folks consider white women to be more acceptable because they are perceived as passive aggressive like Gregorian and friends, rather than direct and to the point.
Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity denies responsibility the "Compton Party", but we'll see if it aids and abets the planners and participants by keeping some of them as members.
UCSD race tensions rise after ‘Compton Cookout,’ use of n-word
By Staff, City News Service
February 21, 2010
...According to the BSU, the broadcast called critics of the party ungrateful and used the n-word. Students searching for a tape of the broadcast found a scrap of cardboard in the TV station with the words “Compton lynching” written on it, further fueling tensions...
New UCSD racial incident sparks rage, confrontation
By Eleanor Yang Su,
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
February 20, 2010
...In the latest incident, members of an irreverent student organization aired a live segment on closed-circuit television Thursday night supporting the party...
About 200 students, mostly black, met yesterday with administrators to discuss four pages of demands, mostly aimed at improving the campus’ racial climate.
Brewing tensions were made worse yesterday morning, when students searching for a copy of the videotape found a piece of cardboard in the student-run television studio with the words “Compton lynching” written on it — an apparent reference to the party, which was billed as the “Compton Cookout.”
...The show that sparked fresh outrage is called Koala TV and featured the editor of the Koala publication [Kris Gregorian] supporting the ghetto-themed party organized by fraternity members.
An invitation to the party urged participants to dress and act like “ghetto chicks” by speaking loudly, starting fights and wearing cheap clothes. The party drew condemnations from lawmakers in Sacramento and angered many students and faculty...
“I don’t feel accepted, and I don’t feel welcomed here at all,” Robinson said. “The whole lynching situation pretty much upset me. It is a possible threat. It was found in the Koala studio, where they called us niggers, and called us ungrateful, and ghetto and dumb. This is an unsafe environment.”
PI KAPPA ALPHA INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY DNIES RESPONSIBILITY FOR PARTY
...The Fraternity regrets the display of ignorance and error-of-judgment made by any individual members who may have attended or were associated via social-media with the racially-offensive party. These actions are in direct violation of PIKE's code of conduct and appropriate disciplinary actions have been taken against members affiliated with the event.
While the Kappa Phi Chapter accepts no direct involvement in the planning of this party, the Fraternity encourages all in attendance to reach out to the African American community, as well as the UCSD community at large, with a sincere and effective reconciliation program...
Garron Engstrom
President
The Kappa Phi Chapter
The Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity
Racial Tensions Boil at UCSD
By MICHELLE WAYLAND
NBC San Diego
Feb 20, 2010
The UCSD’s Student Run Television (SRTV) shut down Friday after a student used the N-word to describe students who complained about the recent “Compton Cookout” controversy, according to a source at the university.
Last week, a group of UCSD students held a party dubbed the Compton Cookout, which featured a motif full of racial stereotypes. African Americans have staged protests in the days since. On Thursday night, students on SRTV, the campus TV station, allegedly called the protesters "ungrateful n-----s."
Dear racists, here’s what a REAL “Compton Cookout” looks like
Feb. 18, 2010
By John Rabe
KPCC 89.3
See all posts about UCSD's "Compton Cookout"
Should public funds be given to "journalists" to shower contempt on minority students, making them want to leave UCSD?
Should fraternities support this type of journalism?
The free speech issue is very important, making this a tough situation. Our society benefits from free speech, but is harmed as it becomes less inclusive.
It's important for all of us that African American citizens become educated and allowed to fully participate in public higher education. In a way the situation is analogous to the Sally Smith situation. The Koala "journalists" don't want irritating "loud" black girls around; the teachers at Serra don't want "irritating" Sally Smith around. The urge to silence voices that make us uncomfortable is rampant in America. Situations with competing moral values, such as freedom of speech v. equal treatment of and participation by all people in our society, are far more tricky than simple questions of right and wrong. It seems to me that UCSD needs to teach students to think more carefully about these issues.
KRIS GREGORIAN
Kris Gregorian and his friends would have us think that he has contempt for black girls because one cute black girl yelled at him at a softball game. I think the reverse is true: Kris Gregorian and friends are racists, and they use an outburst, similar to outbursts I've heard time and again by white girls with extroverted personalities and a sense of fun, to justify their contempt. Apparently the Koala folks consider white women to be more acceptable because they are perceived as passive aggressive like Gregorian and friends, rather than direct and to the point.
Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity denies responsibility the "Compton Party", but we'll see if it aids and abets the planners and participants by keeping some of them as members.
UCSD race tensions rise after ‘Compton Cookout,’ use of n-word
By Staff, City News Service
February 21, 2010
...According to the BSU, the broadcast called critics of the party ungrateful and used the n-word. Students searching for a tape of the broadcast found a scrap of cardboard in the TV station with the words “Compton lynching” written on it, further fueling tensions...
New UCSD racial incident sparks rage, confrontation
By Eleanor Yang Su,
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
February 20, 2010
...In the latest incident, members of an irreverent student organization aired a live segment on closed-circuit television Thursday night supporting the party...
About 200 students, mostly black, met yesterday with administrators to discuss four pages of demands, mostly aimed at improving the campus’ racial climate.
Brewing tensions were made worse yesterday morning, when students searching for a copy of the videotape found a piece of cardboard in the student-run television studio with the words “Compton lynching” written on it — an apparent reference to the party, which was billed as the “Compton Cookout.”
...The show that sparked fresh outrage is called Koala TV and featured the editor of the Koala publication [Kris Gregorian] supporting the ghetto-themed party organized by fraternity members.
An invitation to the party urged participants to dress and act like “ghetto chicks” by speaking loudly, starting fights and wearing cheap clothes. The party drew condemnations from lawmakers in Sacramento and angered many students and faculty...
“I don’t feel accepted, and I don’t feel welcomed here at all,” Robinson said. “The whole lynching situation pretty much upset me. It is a possible threat. It was found in the Koala studio, where they called us niggers, and called us ungrateful, and ghetto and dumb. This is an unsafe environment.”
PI KAPPA ALPHA INTERNATIONAL FRATERNITY DNIES RESPONSIBILITY FOR PARTY
...The Fraternity regrets the display of ignorance and error-of-judgment made by any individual members who may have attended or were associated via social-media with the racially-offensive party. These actions are in direct violation of PIKE's code of conduct and appropriate disciplinary actions have been taken against members affiliated with the event.
While the Kappa Phi Chapter accepts no direct involvement in the planning of this party, the Fraternity encourages all in attendance to reach out to the African American community, as well as the UCSD community at large, with a sincere and effective reconciliation program...
Garron Engstrom
President
The Kappa Phi Chapter
The Pi Kappa Alpha International Fraternity
Racial Tensions Boil at UCSD
By MICHELLE WAYLAND
NBC San Diego
Feb 20, 2010
The UCSD’s Student Run Television (SRTV) shut down Friday after a student used the N-word to describe students who complained about the recent “Compton Cookout” controversy, according to a source at the university.
Last week, a group of UCSD students held a party dubbed the Compton Cookout, which featured a motif full of racial stereotypes. African Americans have staged protests in the days since. On Thursday night, students on SRTV, the campus TV station, allegedly called the protesters "ungrateful n-----s."
Dear racists, here’s what a REAL “Compton Cookout” looks like
Feb. 18, 2010
By John Rabe
KPCC 89.3
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Firm brings more notoriety to itself by appealing suit
SLAPP case: Firm brings more notoriety to itself by appealing suit
August 25, 2009 by donal brown
First Amendment Coalition
A management firm who lost a case against a griper defending himself refuses to let the matter die, appealing the case to the Ninth Circuit. -DB
August 24, 2009
By Michael Masnick
from the bad-idea dept
Remember that discussion a few months ago about how most lawyers apparently understood the Streisand Effect, and knew better than to file bogus lawsuits against individuals putting up “gripes” sites about their business? We’ve already seen that’s not quite true, but it takes a special level of thoughtlessness to lose such a bogus lawsuit (badly) and then file an appeal. We recently wrote about lawsuit filed by Sedgwick Claims Management against a guy who was upset with the company. Part of his griping, involved taking photos of Sedgwick execs and putting them on a fake “WANTED” poster.
The judge, correctly, threw out most of the lawsuit as being a SLAPP and tossed out the ridiculous “copyright infringement” claim on the use of the photos, noting that it was certainly a case of fair use. Most impressive? The guy fighting Sedgwick and its big law firm won the case defending himself (pro se). Perhaps because of the pro se nature of defense, Sedgwick has decided to appeal, but Eric Goldman can’t figure out what they’re thinking as all it does is call more attention to the complaints against the company:
Put this one in the “Are you kidding me?” file. Last month I blogged about Sedgwick Claims Management v. Delsman involving a small-time griper who had the temerity to cut-and-paste some company executive headshots to create his griping material. Sedgwick went after Delsman in a big way, hiring a big national firm (Lord Locke) to take Delsman down, apparently unaware of or unconcerned about the Streisand effect.
Delsman defended pro se. Despite the long odds, Delsman nevertheless got a rousing dismissal of the claims. The court held the use of the headshots was a fair use (a clearly correct ruling, IMO), and the court casually tossed all of the other claims using California’s anti-SLAPP law.
That should have been the end of it. Instead, surprisingly, Sedgwick has decided to appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit. This sets up a potentially important Ninth Circuit showdown over how copyright fair use and anti-SLAPP doctrines apply to Internet gripers. It also gives Sedgwick extra time to bask in the glow of the Streisand effect.
Some people apparently never learn.
Editor’s note: The Streisand Effect surfaces when attempts to censor or remove information from public view
brings the information greater exposure.
Copyright 2009 Techdirt
August 25, 2009 by donal brown
First Amendment Coalition
A management firm who lost a case against a griper defending himself refuses to let the matter die, appealing the case to the Ninth Circuit. -DB
August 24, 2009
By Michael Masnick
from the bad-idea dept
Remember that discussion a few months ago about how most lawyers apparently understood the Streisand Effect, and knew better than to file bogus lawsuits against individuals putting up “gripes” sites about their business? We’ve already seen that’s not quite true, but it takes a special level of thoughtlessness to lose such a bogus lawsuit (badly) and then file an appeal. We recently wrote about lawsuit filed by Sedgwick Claims Management against a guy who was upset with the company. Part of his griping, involved taking photos of Sedgwick execs and putting them on a fake “WANTED” poster.
The judge, correctly, threw out most of the lawsuit as being a SLAPP and tossed out the ridiculous “copyright infringement” claim on the use of the photos, noting that it was certainly a case of fair use. Most impressive? The guy fighting Sedgwick and its big law firm won the case defending himself (pro se). Perhaps because of the pro se nature of defense, Sedgwick has decided to appeal, but Eric Goldman can’t figure out what they’re thinking as all it does is call more attention to the complaints against the company:
Put this one in the “Are you kidding me?” file. Last month I blogged about Sedgwick Claims Management v. Delsman involving a small-time griper who had the temerity to cut-and-paste some company executive headshots to create his griping material. Sedgwick went after Delsman in a big way, hiring a big national firm (Lord Locke) to take Delsman down, apparently unaware of or unconcerned about the Streisand effect.
Delsman defended pro se. Despite the long odds, Delsman nevertheless got a rousing dismissal of the claims. The court held the use of the headshots was a fair use (a clearly correct ruling, IMO), and the court casually tossed all of the other claims using California’s anti-SLAPP law.
That should have been the end of it. Instead, surprisingly, Sedgwick has decided to appeal the ruling to the Ninth Circuit. This sets up a potentially important Ninth Circuit showdown over how copyright fair use and anti-SLAPP doctrines apply to Internet gripers. It also gives Sedgwick extra time to bask in the glow of the Streisand effect.
Some people apparently never learn.
Editor’s note: The Streisand Effect surfaces when attempts to censor or remove information from public view
brings the information greater exposure.
Copyright 2009 Techdirt
Monday, January 11, 2010
Southwestern College Free Speech Zone is somewhat larger than a postage stamp
The ACLU's Best and Worst in San Diego, 2009
Voice of San Diego
January 7, 2010
Kevin Keenan
Southwestern College Free Speech Zone: ...Mario Savio... is no doubt rolling in his grave over the state of free speech on many college campuses -- including post-stamp-sized "free speech zones," like the one at Southwestern College in Chula Vista. Southwestern College's president, Dr. Raj Chopra, has designated a tiny patio area as "Free Speech Plaza," while declaring the rest of the 156-acre campus out of free speech bounds. The ACLU sent a demand letter, calling on the college to revise its policies to allow free speech and assembly throughout the campus. In 2010, we resolve to resolve this matter through negotiation or litigation.
Kevin Keenan is the executive director of the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties.
Here is a link to David Blair-Loy's letter to Raj Chopra.
Voice of San Diego
January 7, 2010
Kevin Keenan
Southwestern College Free Speech Zone: ...Mario Savio... is no doubt rolling in his grave over the state of free speech on many college campuses -- including post-stamp-sized "free speech zones," like the one at Southwestern College in Chula Vista. Southwestern College's president, Dr. Raj Chopra, has designated a tiny patio area as "Free Speech Plaza," while declaring the rest of the 156-acre campus out of free speech bounds. The ACLU sent a demand letter, calling on the college to revise its policies to allow free speech and assembly throughout the campus. In 2010, we resolve to resolve this matter through negotiation or litigation.
Kevin Keenan is the executive director of the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties.
Here is a link to David Blair-Loy's letter to Raj Chopra.
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Fallbrook Union High School free speech case settled
“There is no better place to begin standing up for and teaching basic principles of freedom of speech and freedom of the press than in our schools."
Fallbrook School Leader Ready To Move Past Censorship Case
By Ana Tintocalis
January 4, 2010
...Superintendent Dale Mitchell confirms his district struck a deal with the ACLU to settle a school newspaper censorship case dating back to 2008.
The district will now pay Fallbrook High School's newspaper advisor $7,500 in the settlement. The ACLU gets $20,000.
At the time, Fallbrook High School's principal attempted to block the publication of a student-written article about the resignation of the district's former superintendent. The principal also tried to block a student editorial critical of the district's abstinence-only sex education program.
Mitchell says the campus has adopted new guidelines and procedures so this doesn’t happen again...
The district will also send letters to the students involved, exonerating them from any wrong doing.
The ACLU's David Blair-Loy says the settlement is a victory for student press rights.
“There is no better place to begin standing up for and teaching basic principles of freedom of speech and freedom of the press than in our schools,” Blair-Loy said. “It does take enormous courage for students to stand up to school authorities when (officials) are violating freedom of speech.”
The campus newspaper advisor was removed from his position for insisting to run the information. Five of his journalism students alerted the Student Press Law Center in Virginia. That's when the ACLU got involved.
See also North County Times.
Fallbrook School Leader Ready To Move Past Censorship Case
By Ana Tintocalis
January 4, 2010
...Superintendent Dale Mitchell confirms his district struck a deal with the ACLU to settle a school newspaper censorship case dating back to 2008.
The district will now pay Fallbrook High School's newspaper advisor $7,500 in the settlement. The ACLU gets $20,000.
At the time, Fallbrook High School's principal attempted to block the publication of a student-written article about the resignation of the district's former superintendent. The principal also tried to block a student editorial critical of the district's abstinence-only sex education program.
Mitchell says the campus has adopted new guidelines and procedures so this doesn’t happen again...
The district will also send letters to the students involved, exonerating them from any wrong doing.
The ACLU's David Blair-Loy says the settlement is a victory for student press rights.
“There is no better place to begin standing up for and teaching basic principles of freedom of speech and freedom of the press than in our schools,” Blair-Loy said. “It does take enormous courage for students to stand up to school authorities when (officials) are violating freedom of speech.”
The campus newspaper advisor was removed from his position for insisting to run the information. Five of his journalism students alerted the Student Press Law Center in Virginia. That's when the ACLU got involved.
See also North County Times.
Friday, October 02, 2009
Pittsburgh community college students no longer have to ask permission to pass out leaflets
Pa. college reverses policy after free-speech flap
AP
Oct. 2, 2009
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pittsburgh-area community college caught up in a free-speech dispute says it will no longer require students to get approval to pass out leaflets.
The Community College of Allegheny County had argued that 24-year-old Christine Brashier (BRAH'-sheer) didn't follow the rules when she passed out leaflets in May while trying to form a group advocating the right to carry concealed firearms on campus.
Brashier says the policy violated her free speech rights, and she was backed by groups including the American Civil Liberties Union.
The school says its rule was to prevent students from harmful solicitation, but officials now acknowledge it was vague.
---
Information from: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, http://www.post-gazette.com
AP
Oct. 2, 2009
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A Pittsburgh-area community college caught up in a free-speech dispute says it will no longer require students to get approval to pass out leaflets.
The Community College of Allegheny County had argued that 24-year-old Christine Brashier (BRAH'-sheer) didn't follow the rules when she passed out leaflets in May while trying to form a group advocating the right to carry concealed firearms on campus.
Brashier says the policy violated her free speech rights, and she was backed by groups including the American Civil Liberties Union.
The school says its rule was to prevent students from harmful solicitation, but officials now acknowledge it was vague.
---
Information from: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, http://www.post-gazette.com
Friday, September 25, 2009
Schools Suits Against Students Who Mock Them Online
Schools Suits Against Students Who Mock Them Online
By LAURA HODES
Findlaw
September 24, 2009
...In the latest such lawsuit, the Salon Professional Academy -- a cosmetology school in Elgin, Illinois -- is suing student Nicholas Blacconiere and a John Doe in Kane County Circuit Court. The Academy seeks $50,000 for emotional damages that it alleges were caused by defamatory comments on a Facebook page Blacconiere created. On the page, Blaconniere solicited students to post their comments on the school and its teachers, with the following message: "Dont be afraid to post comments on whats going on, this is yor voice too." (Errors in original.) Blaconniere also himself posted crude messages about teachers.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Oct. 15. Since the law in this area is unsettled, the court's ruling could have far-reaching effects on how free students are to create virtual soapboxes on the Internet...
The ACLU Successfully Defends a Student's Parody of a Principal
In the case of Layshock vs. Hermitage School District, the ACLU filed suit against the Hermitage School District for suspending high school senior Justin Layshock for ten days because he created a MySpace parody of his principal. In addition, the school administration ordered Layshock to finish high school in the Alternative Education Program, and forbade him from attending his own graduation.
On July 10, 2007, a federal district judge ruled that the school's suspension violated Layshock's First Amendment rights, and ordered a jury trial to determine whether Layshock is entitled to compensatory damages. The district court found that "[t]he mere fact that the Internet may be accessed at school does not authorize school officials to become censors of the World Wide Web. Public schools are vital institutions, but their reach is not unlimited."
In reaching its decision, the court looked to the Supreme Court's 1969 decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., which held that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate," but crafted a test that allowed school administrators to punish student speech in some instances. Notably, the court found that the Tinker test applied even to off-campus behavior like Layshock's that targeted a school or its teachers. -..
By LAURA HODES
Findlaw
September 24, 2009
...In the latest such lawsuit, the Salon Professional Academy -- a cosmetology school in Elgin, Illinois -- is suing student Nicholas Blacconiere and a John Doe in Kane County Circuit Court. The Academy seeks $50,000 for emotional damages that it alleges were caused by defamatory comments on a Facebook page Blacconiere created. On the page, Blaconniere solicited students to post their comments on the school and its teachers, with the following message: "Dont be afraid to post comments on whats going on, this is yor voice too." (Errors in original.) Blaconniere also himself posted crude messages about teachers.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Oct. 15. Since the law in this area is unsettled, the court's ruling could have far-reaching effects on how free students are to create virtual soapboxes on the Internet...
The ACLU Successfully Defends a Student's Parody of a Principal
In the case of Layshock vs. Hermitage School District, the ACLU filed suit against the Hermitage School District for suspending high school senior Justin Layshock for ten days because he created a MySpace parody of his principal. In addition, the school administration ordered Layshock to finish high school in the Alternative Education Program, and forbade him from attending his own graduation.
On July 10, 2007, a federal district judge ruled that the school's suspension violated Layshock's First Amendment rights, and ordered a jury trial to determine whether Layshock is entitled to compensatory damages. The district court found that "[t]he mere fact that the Internet may be accessed at school does not authorize school officials to become censors of the World Wide Web. Public schools are vital institutions, but their reach is not unlimited."
In reaching its decision, the court looked to the Supreme Court's 1969 decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., which held that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate," but crafted a test that allowed school administrators to punish student speech in some instances. Notably, the court found that the Tinker test applied even to off-campus behavior like Layshock's that targeted a school or its teachers. -..
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
No diplomas in LAUSD for students who protested; isn't this a violation of free student speech?
15 LA students denied diplomas after protest
06/23/2009
AP
The Los Angeles Unified School District says 15 students were denied diplomas at their eighth-grade graduation because they protested impending teacher layoffs.
The students at Liechty Middle School in East Los Angeles turned their backs on school board President Monica Garcia during Thursday's ceremonies.
A district statement says students are expected to act respectfully and the youngsters won't get diplomas until they and their parents meet with school officials to discuss appropriate behavior.
The district says an apology isn't required - just a meeting.
But Carlos Montes, an activist working with the parents, says some children got diplomas Monday after signing apologies the school provided.
Parents plan to protest to the school board.
06/23/2009
AP
The Los Angeles Unified School District says 15 students were denied diplomas at their eighth-grade graduation because they protested impending teacher layoffs.
The students at Liechty Middle School in East Los Angeles turned their backs on school board President Monica Garcia during Thursday's ceremonies.
A district statement says students are expected to act respectfully and the youngsters won't get diplomas until they and their parents meet with school officials to discuss appropriate behavior.
The district says an apology isn't required - just a meeting.
But Carlos Montes, an activist working with the parents, says some children got diplomas Monday after signing apologies the school provided.
Parents plan to protest to the school board.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Dear Randy Ward, how about allowing a broadcast by school inmates along the lines of Brixton Prison radio?
It's long been popular to give school kids the opportunity to present news and information to their peers; now this idea seems to have become popular in prisons. Does broadcasting improve the minds of the people who do it? How could it not? It makes them think; it teaches them to speak.
It's too bad students and teachers can't do probing interviews like the Brixton inmate who interviewed the former government minister who was sentenced to prison for perjury (story below).
A lot of problems in schools could be fixed if they weren't covered up by officials. Instead of selling exposure on public television to commercial interests, perhaps San Diego County Office of Education Superintendent Randolph Ward could create a television broadcast in which the inmates of San Diego schools, along with the public, could give real information to voters and taxpayers about schools.
Prison Radio Shines
Forbes
Parmy Olson
05.11.09
A tiny prison radio station in London is competing against the BBC for a prestigious award.
...A tiny prison radio station in South London is up for four prestigious Sony awards on Monday night, putting it alongside the some of the top talent of the BBC and other commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom.
Electric Radio in Brixton Prison is run by the Prison Radio Association, a British charity, and broadcasts to just 800 inmates--but it has a rich array of programming...
Its nominations include an award for talk radio and the all-important Interview Award.
...one of Brixton Prison's inmates interviewed former U.K. government minister Jonathan Aitken, who was sentenced to 18 months in Belmarsh prison in 1999 for perjury and perverting the course of justice.
The interviewer was half-way through a four-year sentence when he conducted the interview, and the two men were "socially, culturally and educationally poles apart," the Prison Radio Association says. But while Aitken comes across as well-spoken and slightly pompous, Tis' is not afraid to ask probing questions, creating an intriguing interview in which Aitken opens up about his divorce, bankruptcy and experiences in jail. The interview can be listened to here...
[Maura Larkins' comment: Perhaps freedom of speech, though it may be the foundation of our country's success, is not popular with education officials. Perhaps Randy Ward and Diane Crosier, who are supporting their lawyer Daniel Shinoff in his defamation lawsuit against me, believe that anyone who tells the truth about their actions should face a court system that has often helped them cover up their actions. Thank goodness they don't have as much power as officials in Iran.]
Blogger jailed in Iran is dead
CNN
March 19, 2009
A young blogger arrested in Iran for allegedly insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an Internet posting has died in prison, his attorney said Friday.
The blogger had been jailed for allegedly insulting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an internet posting.
Attorney Mohammad Ali Dadkhah said Omid Mir Sayafi, reported to be in his 20s, died in Evin prison, which is located in Tehran and known for its wing that holds political prisoners.
Dadkhah said a fellow inmate, Dr. Hessam Firouzi, called him Wednesday night with the news -- and said he believed Sayafi would have lived if he received proper medical care.
Dadkhah said Firouzi, an imprisoned human-rights activist, said that he carried a semi-conscious Sayafi to a prison doctor but that he didn't receive the care he needed.
"It was Dr. Firouzi's opinion that if he would've received proper medical attention, he would not have died," Dadkhah said.
He said Sayafi was buried on Thursday and that his calls to the prison asking for an explanation have not been returned.
Dadkhah said Sayafi "sounded OK" at about 2 p.m. on Wednesday when he last spoke to him by telephone. He said the blogger asked for a book about Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, which begins Friday.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, which advocates for activists in the country, quoted Firouzi on its Web site as saying Sayafi suffered from depression and had taken extra doses of medication on Wednesday.
The group blamed Iran's government for unsafe conditions in its prisons.
"Iranian leaders have relegated the administration of the prison system to a group of incompetent and cruel officials who are showing their utter disregard for human life," said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the campaign. "If the authorities do not move quickly to hold negligent officials responsible, they are reinforcing impunity and the lack of accountability."
Sayafi was first arrested in April, then released for 41 days before being arrested again. He was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for comments on a blog that his lawyer argued was intended only for a few friends to read.
It's too bad students and teachers can't do probing interviews like the Brixton inmate who interviewed the former government minister who was sentenced to prison for perjury (story below).
A lot of problems in schools could be fixed if they weren't covered up by officials. Instead of selling exposure on public television to commercial interests, perhaps San Diego County Office of Education Superintendent Randolph Ward could create a television broadcast in which the inmates of San Diego schools, along with the public, could give real information to voters and taxpayers about schools.
Prison Radio Shines
Forbes
Parmy Olson
05.11.09
A tiny prison radio station in London is competing against the BBC for a prestigious award.
...A tiny prison radio station in South London is up for four prestigious Sony awards on Monday night, putting it alongside the some of the top talent of the BBC and other commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom.
Electric Radio in Brixton Prison is run by the Prison Radio Association, a British charity, and broadcasts to just 800 inmates--but it has a rich array of programming...
Its nominations include an award for talk radio and the all-important Interview Award.
...one of Brixton Prison's inmates interviewed former U.K. government minister Jonathan Aitken, who was sentenced to 18 months in Belmarsh prison in 1999 for perjury and perverting the course of justice.
The interviewer was half-way through a four-year sentence when he conducted the interview, and the two men were "socially, culturally and educationally poles apart," the Prison Radio Association says. But while Aitken comes across as well-spoken and slightly pompous, Tis' is not afraid to ask probing questions, creating an intriguing interview in which Aitken opens up about his divorce, bankruptcy and experiences in jail. The interview can be listened to here...
[Maura Larkins' comment: Perhaps freedom of speech, though it may be the foundation of our country's success, is not popular with education officials. Perhaps Randy Ward and Diane Crosier, who are supporting their lawyer Daniel Shinoff in his defamation lawsuit against me, believe that anyone who tells the truth about their actions should face a court system that has often helped them cover up their actions. Thank goodness they don't have as much power as officials in Iran.]
Blogger jailed in Iran is dead
CNN
March 19, 2009
A young blogger arrested in Iran for allegedly insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an Internet posting has died in prison, his attorney said Friday.
The blogger had been jailed for allegedly insulting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an internet posting.
Attorney Mohammad Ali Dadkhah said Omid Mir Sayafi, reported to be in his 20s, died in Evin prison, which is located in Tehran and known for its wing that holds political prisoners.
Dadkhah said a fellow inmate, Dr. Hessam Firouzi, called him Wednesday night with the news -- and said he believed Sayafi would have lived if he received proper medical care.
Dadkhah said Firouzi, an imprisoned human-rights activist, said that he carried a semi-conscious Sayafi to a prison doctor but that he didn't receive the care he needed.
"It was Dr. Firouzi's opinion that if he would've received proper medical attention, he would not have died," Dadkhah said.
He said Sayafi was buried on Thursday and that his calls to the prison asking for an explanation have not been returned.
Dadkhah said Sayafi "sounded OK" at about 2 p.m. on Wednesday when he last spoke to him by telephone. He said the blogger asked for a book about Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, which begins Friday.
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, which advocates for activists in the country, quoted Firouzi on its Web site as saying Sayafi suffered from depression and had taken extra doses of medication on Wednesday.
The group blamed Iran's government for unsafe conditions in its prisons.
"Iranian leaders have relegated the administration of the prison system to a group of incompetent and cruel officials who are showing their utter disregard for human life," said Hadi Ghaemi, spokesman for the campaign. "If the authorities do not move quickly to hold negligent officials responsible, they are reinforcing impunity and the lack of accountability."
Sayafi was first arrested in April, then released for 41 days before being arrested again. He was sentenced to 2½ years in prison for comments on a blog that his lawyer argued was intended only for a few friends to read.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Another week, another restriction of student speech; the principal of high school in Orange, California, has confiscated student magazine
Principal Censors School Paper: Claims "Old English" Font Promotes Gang Activity
June 18th, 2009
by Lee Baker
Another week, another restriction of student speech. S.K. Johnson, the principal of Orange High School in (where else?) Orange, California, has confiscated copies of a student magazine prior to publication. His main complaint about the latest issue of PULP concerns the cover, which features a faux full-back tattoo with the publication’s name and a picture of a panther, the school mascot. The principal alleges that the image promotes gang life and might encourage students to get tattoos, singling out the use of Old English font to create “gangster-style writing.”
While the school has a legitimate interest in preventing the glorification of gang culture, one of Mr. Johnson’s proposed solutions – to affix an addendum or edit the accompanying article on student tattoos to indicate that tattoos are permanent – demonstrates that this is not actually his primary concern.
Although it may be helpful for students to be reminded of the difficulty of tattoo removal, such a concern should not give a school principal the legal right to suppress student speech.
Despite the essentially unlimited reach of Hazelwood with regard to school-sponsored speech (discussed in last week’s post), sanctioning censorship in order to protect students from making bad decisions on icy.skin art almost certainly pushes it too far.
...California state law has more stringent restrictions on censoring student speech, a position supported by a recent paper in the UC Davis Journal of Juvenile Law & Policy.
June 18th, 2009
by Lee Baker
Another week, another restriction of student speech. S.K. Johnson, the principal of Orange High School in (where else?) Orange, California, has confiscated copies of a student magazine prior to publication. His main complaint about the latest issue of PULP concerns the cover, which features a faux full-back tattoo with the publication’s name and a picture of a panther, the school mascot. The principal alleges that the image promotes gang life and might encourage students to get tattoos, singling out the use of Old English font to create “gangster-style writing.”
While the school has a legitimate interest in preventing the glorification of gang culture, one of Mr. Johnson’s proposed solutions – to affix an addendum or edit the accompanying article on student tattoos to indicate that tattoos are permanent – demonstrates that this is not actually his primary concern.
Although it may be helpful for students to be reminded of the difficulty of tattoo removal, such a concern should not give a school principal the legal right to suppress student speech.
Despite the essentially unlimited reach of Hazelwood with regard to school-sponsored speech (discussed in last week’s post), sanctioning censorship in order to protect students from making bad decisions on icy.skin art almost certainly pushes it too far.
...California state law has more stringent restrictions on censoring student speech, a position supported by a recent paper in the UC Davis Journal of Juvenile Law & Policy.
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