Mark Van der Merwe

A Nation of Speech
The idea of the future for a high school student is often quite intimidating. Beyond the
land of high-school education is this realm of opportunity and struggle and excitement. Students
are told of this promised land. They - we that is - work towards this goal of higher education. A
little under 70% of high school graduates enroll in higher education. What does this mean for the
USA? It means that the majority of our citizens are going through our education system. These
are the young men and women that will make up the future of the United States. And they must
develop as Americans in this system. Restricting of students speech at this stage of education
and development is unacceptable. It is important to maintain the free speech of students in our
universities since it is they who will make up this countrys freedom and therefore should be able
to stand by this countrys morales and ideals.
The very first amendment of the Constitution is incredibly important to our United States.
Free speech is essentially what this country is based on. We are nation of people standing up
for what they believe to be right. The Cornell University Law Schools article on the First
Amendment writes that the right to freedom of speech allows individuals to express themselves
without interference or constraint by the government. This country is based upon this idea of
every person having their own ideas and having the right to represent that.
So how can we possibly restrict freedom in our schools? Refusing students any of their
basic rights is against constitutional law. Maintaining free speech is fundamental because it
would be against the law to do any different. This means in the education system as well. In the

Constitutions First Amendment, it says, Congress shall make no lawabridging freedom of

speech. Our governing doctrine states specifically that any movement to prevent the open
speech of an individual is unlawful. We cannot allow a break in the constitution to occur. It would
be unethical and wrong for us as Americans to stand by as the rights of fellow Americans are
unconstitutionally being restricted. Allowing students to express their ideas about any given topic
is fully required and expands upon constitutional ideas on campus and in our people.
We cannot sway from the rulings that our courts make. Among the interpretations of the
first amendment is this line from the United States Courts website article on the applications of
the first amendment. Freedom of speech includes the rightnot to speak. In the video created
by FIRE called Silencing U: Five Outrageous Cases of Campus Censorship, one of the
examples is a direct violation of this rightnot to speak. The the University of Delaware
interrogated students with personal questions and students were punished for refusing to
answer. The goal of this program was essentially a modern day public shaming, says FIRE
President Greg Lukianoff. This college was participating in a direct violation of freedom of
speech that was outrageous and unconstitutional. This inhibits the students learning by causing
essentially public abuse to students through segregation and by forcing them to give up their
right to privacy. We simply cannot allow colleges and universities to break the law without
repercussions.
The students in our colleges and universities are the future of our country. They will be
the people who run this country and teach upcoming generations. It is important for us to
continue passing on the values we have to our descendants. The ideas we plant in studentss

minds during this time will affect their futures. We must assure that the ideals we are teaching
students are in line with the constitution we live by. And this means that we can in no way restrict
their rights to freedom of speech.
Chris Morbitzer was a student at the University of Cincinnati looking to get signature for
their initiative. He asked permission to get signatures across campus and was denied unless
they remained within the free speech zone. This zone was 0.1% of the UC campus and didnt
see regular foot traffic. They were being denied their rights to speech. They were not being
allowed to openly proclaim their views and opinions and were threatened with legal action if they
left this free speech zone. This was basically a direct assault on their rights as Americans. They
were not being allowed to publicly speak freely. As students, they are being taught these ideals.
The universities that are restricting speech are telling students its acceptable to do so. They are
essentially breaking the constitution and teaching the students that it is ok to do so. This cannot
be continued if we wish to ensure the integrity of our country in relation to the constitution.
Naturally, their must be certain restrictions applied to ensure the safety of the student
body. But almost all the examples that FIRE has needed to step in for were petitions and actions
that caused or incited no harm to anyone and did not attack anyone or threaten anyone. Their
actions were completely within their rights and were not impeding learning at all. Any restrictions
being made were completely out of line and unnecessary.
Restrictions on speech in universities need to stop immediately. These universities that
are impeding the rights to speech of their students are being directly unconstitutional and must
be brought to justice. They are training the future of the United States on lines that are

unconstitutional and threaten the integrity of this countrys future in accordance with our
founding beliefs and ideals. We in the United States have rights that must be protected. And we
are a Nation of Speech. We must protect the first Amendment in our schools.