The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution authorized citizens with the freedom of religion, speech, press and assembly. This amendment also goes to the college students. However, colleges limited the students constitutional rights by enforcing the “free speech zones”. Colleges are places where it enable students to encounter new and challenging ideas through open debates, but free speech zones limited this. You can only express your ideas in the free speech zones, nowhere else. This can be related to burning the flag (an action that intended to make a political point against a country or its policies), if you can’t express your ideas anywhere you wants, doesn’t it also indicates a person can’t randomly choose a place to burn the flag, it have to be in a specific area. Both theses is a way to express your rights as a citizens of U.S. Therefore, colleges shouldn’t restrict the political speech of students to free speech zones. For instance, students went to colleges to learn more about the world around them and to encounter people from different backgrounds. Students would be able to expands their knowledge and form their own opinions about the government and its policies, but it won’t happen if colleges restrict it to free speech zones. According to the text, American Flag Stands for Tolerance, it states; “ Each individual is to have the freedom to develop by his or her own lights, and not by the command of officialdom. That requires not just the right to be let
In the essay Protecting freedom of expression the campus, by Derek Bok, his thesis is to to abide by the first amendment and try ignore or persuade the people to do the right thing. Throughout this essay there were various argument to support his thesis. The first argument was that the First Amendment does not make what the person says right, proper, or civil. Bok comments on how even though people find the flags to be offensive it is not enough to make prohibiting it right. Towards the end of his essay another argument he states is that the First Amendment does not specifically comment on what is a private institution, but it would seem unpractical to have a college have less freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech is a fundamental American freedom and a human right, and there’s no place that this right should be more valued and protected than in colleges and universities. A college exists to educate and to advance a student 's knowledge. Colleges do so by acting as a “marketplace of ideas” where ideas compete. It is important to be able to compare your ideas with everyone else as it helps to open your mind to other people’s views and can give you a different perception on things. In the article “The Coddling of the American Mind,” Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukiankoff talked about how too many college students engage in “catastrophizing," which is in short, the overreaction to something. They also said that “smart people do, in fact, overreact to innocuous speech, make mountains out of molehills, and seek punishment for anyone whose words make anyone else feel uncomfortable.”(Haidt) Many colleges have the belief that prohibiting freedom of speech will resolve such issues. But instead, colleges should take a different approach on the matter by teaching students how to properly utilize their Freedom of Speech which will help to resolve future conflicts and misunderstandings.
In “Protecting Freedom of Expression on the campus”, Derek Bok uses authority and predicting the consequences to argue the right of free speech after two Harvard University students hung confederate flags and another hung a swastika in public view. Bok states that “it is important to distinguish between the appropriateness of such communications and their status under the First Amendment” (4), this amendment gives us the right to freedom of speech which cannot be taken from us. Even though many people in the community saw these flags as offensive the students are protected under the First Amendment. The communities do have the right to regulate speech to protect the public but these rules can’t be enforced to prohibit specific things.
The United States is well-known for its principles of freedom and democracy, which is demonstrated through the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause. Thus, American citizens can openly discuss political matters; criticize the President and his Cabinet on television, radio talk show or in the newspaper; or publicly protest against the government tax policy. However, Free Speech protection becomes debatable when some American citizens burn the nation’s flag to express their disagreement to the government. The act of burning the American Flag should be constitutionally protected under the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause because the act is a symbolic expression that communicates an individual’s idea or opinion about his nation; and that
With a wide variety of people on colleges campuses, it is almost impossible to please everybody; whether it comes to class times, bus schedules, or grading rules, somebody is upset. As well as these smaller issues, more controversial arguments come into play. One of these arguments is against free speech zones on college campuses. These zones restrict speech to a specific area on campus, however, still allowing any type of group to express their beliefs to anybody passing. Some claim these zones as unconstitutional because it restricts a student’s right to free speech. However, others view the zones as helpful in controlling protests and current tensions on campus. Open speech across campus is incredibly difficult to monitor because of the enormous size of current day campuses and the immense amount of different views. In the past, there have been situations relating to violent protesting and negative speech across campuses. Because of this, campuses have begun enforcing free speech zones in which students and faculty may verbally express their beliefs.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech.” Indeed, free speech is a large block upon which this nation was first constructed, and remains a hard staple of America today; and in few places is that freedom more often utilized than on a college campus. However, there are limitations to our constitutional liberties on campus and they, most frequently, manifest themselves in the form of free speech zones, hate speech and poor university policy. Most school codes are designed to protect students, protect educators and to promote a stable, non-disruptive and non-threatening learning environment. However, students’ verbal freedom
Public high school students have the First Amendment right of free expression and the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches while they’re at school. These protections extend a student’s social media and to the digital contents of their cell phones. At the same time, public high schools have special characteristics associated with their duty to educate students and provide a safe and orderly place conducive to learning and so students accept greater restrictions of their constitutional rights while in school. At issue with respect to Rocktown High School’s 2016 AP History class is whether the school’s “search” of history student’s social media “friends,” obtained under threat of suspension, was reasonable, whether the
The First Amendment gives the citizens of the United States their most important rights: the right to freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion, and the freedom of assembly. Over time these rights have worked themselves into the everyday lives of United States citizens. However, there are still places where our First Amendment rights may be compromised. In the school system, finding a balance of respect and freedom of speech and press is as difficult as learning out to tightrope walk. One wrong step and you could be compromising the learning environment of the entire student body.
Free of Speech is still dilemma to schools. For instance we look in a news article, we find a similar situation like NFL Protest.Although the situation at Harvard, a couple of students were exhibiting the Confederate flag for community view.Derek Bok, a past President at Harvard University and the author of “Protecting Freedom of Expression on the Campus” he discusses the controversial between two groups of the sight of swastika flag at Harvard.Boks argue that exhibiting the swastika symbol distinctly descends within the protection of free speech under First Amendment.But he feel disappointed and himself that students who were involved had see what was being displayed.
When it comes to this student in Michigan at Franklin D. Roosevelt that was case for her. When reading the article of "HS Student Asked to Remove anti War Shirt" by Tamar Lewis the first amendment to even wear a shirt of his choice wasn’t respected , as Bretton Barber a H.S junior wore a shirt with ex-president George Bush face on it with the words of "international Terrorists " as well. Not only did the school take affiance to it but they sent him home as well. In times like these I think there are good uses of free speech and bad , and this is no were near the bad kind. I think many need to look into this right of the freedom of speech. As you can't even wear a shirt you may strongly believe in , but there can be people in today's world in a "protest" calling people the "N" word to people's faces. To calling homosexual people god mistake is more right than a shirt then I don’t know what Americas come to. As in the article you read on how a 17 year old boy is getting criticized for not maintain an environment of "conductive to learning". At the time maybe I understand we were gearing up for a war but even if that the case how can you take his rights as a free American away from him. Just because he may feel differently than the next one hundred people around him is not right nor is a good look on the route of the United States as a
First, Americans are not free to express their opinions fully. Two students passed out copies of the U.S. Constitution and were told that it was not allowed on the campus grounds. The article states, “Two students are suing a Hawaii university after they said they were told in January they could not pass out copies of the Constitution to fellow students, in a lawsuit accusing the school of violating their First Amendment rights to free speech” (McManus 1). These students sued the Hawaii University because their First Amendment right was being violated wrongfully.
Recently, there has been a lot of discussion regarding free speech on college campuses. Our first amendment gives us the right of Free Speech but many groups retain the ability to censor it within their own organisation, such as in the workplace and in both public and private lower education. I believe that the ability should be extended to colleges and universities (both public and private). Students should have the right to be at school while feeling physically safe. An example of this right being violated because of someone else’s “free speech” was last spring at American University in which bananas were strung up on nooses around campus with AKA (a historically-black sorority) labeled on them the day after AU’s first black female student
College is a time when most individuals are experiencing major changes and begin to explore new perspectives. The transition in becoming more independent, creating new insights and peer influence are key factors in changing the perspective of an individual. Students are faced with new ideas from their professors, family and fellow peers. Through that acquired knowledge many students decide that they either agree or disagree with the perspectives that they are taught. Allowing the right of ‘Free Speech’ on public college campuses has become an important issue that many public colleges are starting to address. In college students are capable of
Firstly, freedom of speech should not be limited because it give students a voice. For example, there was a case in that ended in 1969 called the Tinker v. Des Moines case. “In 1965, when Mary Beth Tinker was 13 years old, she wore a black armband to her junior high school to protest the Vietnam War.” (Wheeler). This showed her spreading her opinion and using her voice that freedom of speech in school gave her. If schools had no limit to freedom of speech, students would be allowed to spread their opinions freely just like Mary did. The Tinker v. Des Moines ended up becoming one of the largest and most important cases in history for freedom of speech in schools. Also, a third grade
Freedom of speech is more than just the right to say what one pleases. Freedom of speech is the right to voice your opinion on certain topics or dilemmas around you. This basic right given to us in the First Amendment is being challenged by colleges who encourage “freedom of speech” with certain restrictions.