Speech Codes on Campus

I believe that this kind of racist behavior should not be tolerated on college campuses. It promotes racism and discrimination against African Americans and is creates a negative and hateful attitude towards minoritites. It is absolutely dipicable to see college students, young adults ready to enter the real world, dressing themselves up as KKK members or black slaves. I do not understand how anyone could possible see this as humerous or entertaining. It is cruel and immature behavior and colleges must put a stop to it. However, I do not think that banning it is the right solution. I think administrators should do everything they can to explain to the students the implications of their actions and how they affects others. In The Freedom Writer's Diary, the teacher explains to her students how racism promotes hatred and leads to mass murder and genocides. She explained that a racist drawing one student in the class made was exactly the kind of propaganda that was circulating in Germany leading up to the Holocaust. If teachers and administrators showed college students how similar these actions are to those of the Nazis in Germany, I am confident that it would have a real affect on them and change their minds about throwing these kind of themed parties.

Many of the schools that I am applying to for college are in California. When I clicked the mouse on the California picture, nearly every school that came up was rated as a Red Light or a Yellow Light (though most red). While I suppose this might negatively influence some students' decisions to attend one of these schools, I see it as a possitive aspect of the university. I looked specifically at the University of Southern California because it is one of my top choices and was rated as a Red Light. After reading several posts about this college and reading some of the policies that the college has set in place, it only encourages me as a student and shows me that USC is a great learning environment and same community. Why wouldn't I want to attend a college that protects me from harrasment or punishes students who degrade and verbally attack my peers? How could I possibly see this as a negative? The only students who should be frustrated by these policies are those who make a habbit of harrassing others for race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. If these policies prevent these students from wanting to attend the university, I only see that as a possitive consequence to creating a safe and supportive learning environment. I highly disagree with the ideas posted on FIRE's website that make these colleges out to be infringing on their freedom of speech when all they are trying to do is protect students from harrasment or abuse by peers and I absolutely believe these policies are legal.

If USC were to hear about sororities or fraternities throwing the kind of themed parties depicted in the slideshow, I am confident that they would have severe punishments for those who participated in the party and who put it together. I am sure that they would, at the very least, put the house on probation and then possibly kick them off campus if they repeat the offence. I definatly believe this would be a reasonable punishment and reaction from the school because it is acting in favor of its students and all mankind as it protects minorities from discrimination and shows an example to others that this kind of behavior is wrong and should not be tolerated.

I fully believe in the freedom of speech and protecting the First Amendment when it comes to political beliefs and actions, but when students disriminate against others or show racist behavior simply for entertainment or just simply for the fun of it, the school should have the right to step in and punish them. There is no excuse for students to harrass each other based on race, religion, or sexual orientation. I strongly disagree with FIRE and its opinion on these schools.

Speech Codes- What is the Court's Problem?

I have always strongly believed in the importance of the First Amendment and am weary of any action the government might take that would limit a person's freedom of speech, but after reading about speech codes on college campuses, I have to ask myself, what is the court's problem? I usually do not believe in a school's right to limit a student's freedom of speech, but I have come to the conclusion that it really does depend on the matter they are speaking about. If a student wants to make a political statement and chooses to protest a certain law or policy of the government in a non-violent and non-aggressive way, the student should have every right to do so. However, if the student is abusing his or her freedom of speech by using it as an excuse to verbally or socially attack a certain group of people based on race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or political views, this should not be allowed on a school's campus. Intolerance of prejudice acts, such handing out racial fliers or burning crosses in front of where an African American lives, should be enforced and punishment should come to those who choose to personally attack an individual or a specific group of people. Fighting words are any form of speech that is expected to cause an immediate violent reaction from people, and this form of speech is not protected under the First Amendment. I strongly believe that prejudice actions and attacks on specific individuals or groups should be considered fighting words and therefore not be accepted on college campuses. Many schools have tried to enforce speech codes but failed because the court decided that the codes are unjust and that the school should not have the power to limit a student's rights to share an opinion, no matter how unpopular, unfair, or offensive the student's behavior might be. I can not bring myself to understand why a college would condone the mental or verbal abuse from one student to another and I hope to see this change in the near future.

Ten Years Later, It Feels Closer Than Ever

It has been ten years since terrorists attacked the United States by flying two planes into the Twin Towers in New York City. I always viewed this day as a horrifying tragedy, but after watching a documentary filmed on the day of the attack, from both inside the building and outside with the firefighters, it feels more personal than ever. It is no longer a historical event that marked the beginning of a war that has lasted over a decade, but I suddenly see that day for what it really is: an attack on humanity, an attack on America, and an attack on me. I truly believe that the fact that these two filmmakers were documenting the firefighters on that day, and were therefore able to capture the entire even on camera, was a miracle. It  allows the world to see that day from inside the towers, to actually live in those terrifying moments with the men that risked their lives to save others, and to see the tragedy with our own eyes. It became more personal than ever. I saw these young men running in to save my fellow Americans. I have friends whose parents were supposed to be on those planes. I heard bodies smashing to the concrete as they jumped from the burning building eighty stories up. I watched the stunned and frightened faces of our heroes as they stood in the lobby of the World Trade Center. This day is no longer stories that I hear from my parents or articles I read in the newspaper. It is a real, live, massacre that I can still see vividly in my mind, the footage of the collapsing building playing on repeat in front of my eyes.

With the severity and size of the attack, it is easy to let this day feel like a loss of thousands of lives, but after reading the article At Pentagon, No Words Will Fill Void from the New York Times, it seemed to finally dawn on me that it was the loss of a loved one, for millions of people. It seemed to be one enormous tragedy to me, because I did not know anyone who died in those towers on September 11th, but for millions of people it went beyond seeing there nation lose innocent civilians, but it was seeing their family lose a chair at the dinner table. It wasn't an event they were reminded of when they went to the airport and had to arrive two hours early for security, but it was a void that would never again be filled in their lives. It was a gaping hole in their hearts. It was the loss of someone's father, someone's mother, someone's brother or sister, someone's aunt and uncle and cousin, someone's grandma or grandpa, someone's best friend, someone's high school sweetheart and pregnant wife, someone's newlywed husband, someone's son, someone's daughter, someone's life long companion, someone's entire world. It was an attack on their country, but it was the destruction of their families too.

I don' know how to describe my feelings about this day other than to say that it made me lose a great deal of my faith in humanity. I understand that countries will disagree with other countries and try to bring about changes that they feel to be necessary, but I will never be able to bring myself to understand why anyone would see an act of terrorism such as 9/11, to be a solution to any problem. Re-examining this day has forced me to question what could possible drive a human being to commit a mass murder on thousands of innocent people. How could anyone have so much hate in their heart to commit such a crime? How could a human being ever justify these actions. The human race has divided and taken aim against itself, and I wonder how we have fallen so low that we destroy our own.

The American Education System: Learning to Be Silent?

As Americans, we have always been told to stand up for what we believe in and fight for what is right. As Americans, we have been told that we have the right to share our beliefs openly without fear of punishment for what we say. As Americans, we have been told that we have equal rights as one another and the freedom to live our lives as we please. Yet as students, we are told to act "maturely" and sensor what we say. As students, we are told to avoid discussing issues that might cause discomfort between individuals with different beliefs. As students, we are reprimanded for speaking our minds and taking advantage of the first amendment of the constitution. As an individual, I would like to know when students stopped being considered Americans, and lost the right to speak freely with others. As an individual, I would like to know why our school systems teach us that America is a marvelous country where all citizens are treated equally, while simultaneously restricting our freedom of speech and expression. As an individual, I would like to know why this injustice has yet to be changed.

Recently, I learned that there have been several court cases in the past few decades that have challenged this censorship of what students are allowed to say in school or at school functioned events. After hearing different cases and the points made from each side of the argument, I have realized that there are different circumstances that would make different outcomes more reasonable than others. It is not always black and white. The specific details of the case make a difference. The intent of the student is significant  in determining if they were simply expressing their views or if they were violating school policies. In some instances, students are making political statements and that is definitely protected by the first amendment of the constitution. There are other instances, in which the student is, in fact, speaking out of term and breaking school code of conduct for reasons that are not specifically intended to make a political statement or stand. Looking at two cases in particular, made this difference clear.

In the case of Tinker v. Des Moines,  two students were trying to show their opposition to the Vietnam War by wearing black arm bands to school. They were suspended until they agreed to remove the armbands because the school was concerned with it disrupting classes or making other students uncomfortable. The case was taken all way to the Supreme Court, where it was ultimately declared that the students were expressing a political opinion and this action was most definitely protected by the constitution, even in a school setting. They were not threatening people who did not agree with their opinion, nor were they doing any harmful behavior. They were simply declaring that they did not believe in war by use of symbolic speech. In the case of Morse v. Frederick, however, the students' actions were not protected by the constitution because they were not speaking about a political view. A group of students ran across their pep-rally with a banner that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus". The main teenager who organized this banner was suspended for breaking school rules by promoting an illegal drug at a school event. The court ruled that the school had correctly punished the student because his actions were clearly in violation of school rules. In addition, his comments about illegal drugs were not referencing the opinion that marijuana should be legalized, it was only making a crude joke about a harmful substance. Clearly, there is a vast difference between these two cases due to the students' intentions and whether their actions were for political reasons or not.

After learning about these two court cases about students right to freedom symbolic speech in schools or at school functioned events, I realized that the circumstances are very important in determining if the student should be allowed to make their statement or not. While it is important for for students to have the freedom to express themselves no matter what setting they are in, it does make sense that if they are referencing illegal drugs or harmful behavior, there are places where this would be inappropriate and a school would have to step in. If the student is making a statement about his or her political views, it should one hundred percent be protected by the government.