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Teaching moment at Tarleton State
A public university; a drama class; and a student's decision to produce Corpus Christi, a play depicting Jesus as gay, for an assignment. These are parts of the story at Tarleton State University that resulted in a professor's decision to cancel the student production because of threats to public safety. Details of the story are outlined here.
Against a backdrop of public outrage, the University president defended the student's right to produce the play.
His thoughtful opinion invokes both the Constitution and the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act in which Congress reiterated the need for institutions of higher education to facilitate the free and open exchange of ideas. The HEOA should be required reading for higher education administrators and trustees.
The bottom line here is that public universities are bound to uphold the First Amendment.
As Tarleton State has learned, sometimes upholding the First Amendment can get pretty sticky. That's why the president deserves real praise for understanding that students do have the right to free expression in a classroom context, and articulating this important principle in courageous terms.
It's easy to uphold the First Amendment when we all agree. But what the Founders and Tarleton State commendably understand is that free speech is not only for agreeable speech. It's also for speech we abhor. It is for speech that offends -- whether it be about religious beliefs, lifestyles, or governmental policies.
Under the First Amendment, more speech -- not less -- is the answer when there is speech with which we disagree. That's why the fact that Tarleton State had to close down the classroom in response to security threats -- the heckler's veto -- is such a sad ending here.
It underscores what public polls have too often found: a large percentage of Americans don't understand the protections of the First Amendment. There's a teaching moment available here -- and Tarleton State should continue to take advantage of it.
Posted by Anne D. Neal on March 30, 2010 at March 30, 2010 04:13 PM
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