Administrator admits school violated free speech rights
By Rob Van Tuinen
On September 17th, Constitution Day, a police officer at my school told me I could not pass out copies of our founding document. I wanted to raise interest in creating a liberty-oriented student group at my school, and ended up learning how desperately liberty is needed on American college campuses.
The officer at Modesto Junior College stopped my expression of free speech, then showed me to my Student Development Office to fill out paperwork. There, administrator Christine Serrano told me that I could only pass out copies of the Constitution in a tiny “free speech zone.” And only then on the 20th, 27th, or in October, when it would be free again. Lastly, I learned that I would have to show my ID to book the zone. When I told Serrano that I’d wanted to pass out Constitutions on Constitution Day, she informed me that I “really don’t need to keep going on.”
My right to free speech was abridged through the threat of violence on a day created to pay homage to the rights and privileges the document I was trying to pass out was created to enshrine.
That would have been the end of it, except that my disheartening encounter with the officer was recorded on video. Faced with the reality of the situation, Modesto Marketing and Public Relations Officer Linda Hoile has admitted that the school violated my rights. “The student, from what I can see on the video, was not being disruptive in any way shape or form and should have been allowed to hand out the constitutions,” Hoile told FOX40.
Unfortunately, not every student whose right to free speech is unconstitutionally abridged has a camera on them at the time. Unconstitutional speech policies exist all over the country, forcing students into free speech zones, limiting what they can say.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has found that one in six of America’s 400 largest and most prestigious colleges have ‘free speech zones’ limiting where speech can take place.
It’s a travesty that it’s not unusual for a school to enforce unconstitutional limits on speech by sending police officers to intimidate students into compliance. These rules are especially pernicious when they abridge students’ rights to distribute literature. Forcing students to schedule their speech, keep their speech in special zones and only allowing a few students to distribute at a time is utterly contrary to the goal of enabling young citizens to participate in democracy.
Schools are supposed to facilitate the marketplace of ideas, not suppress speech.
The FIRE has an easy way for you to write my college president, Jill Stearns, asking her to rescind these unconstitutional, speech-abridging rules establishing a free speech zone. But that’s just the first step. The free speech zones which have proliferated across the country have got to go. There is simply no justification for forcing students who wish to speak, pass out literature, or otherwise exercise their Constitutional right to free speech to show ID, wait in line and limit the size of their group to fit in predefined areas, away from the students they are trying to reach.
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Having a police officer stop me from passing out copies of the Constitution on Constitution Day, and getting the runaround from my administration, was an incredibly unpleasant experience. But I hope it helps people understand the very real threat to liberty that free speech zones on schools pose. And I hope people who support the rights enshrined in the Constitution are moved to call for these rules to be rescinded, so that the next student who wants to pass out copies of our founding document next Constitution Day can do so in peace.
Author’s Bio:
Robert is an undergraduate student at Modesto Junior College and a United States Army veteran with six years of service. He started the Pirates for Liberty organization at Modesto and Rob is a SFL Campus Coordinator. Learn more about students and young professionals who are changing the world at Young Voices. (link young voices to http://www.youngvoicesadvocates.com)
