The University of Missouri’s Melissa Click may never get tenure owing to her threats and harassment against student journalists on public land, but her legacy will live on.
A Missouri state legislator introduced a bill that would require students at state colleges and universities to study First Amendment rights – as in, “complete a three-credit-hour course on freedom of speech,” the Student Press Law Center reports:
The coursework satisfying the requirement includes the study of freedom of speech as embodied in the First Amendment, discussion of the concepts of freedom of inquiry and the history of speech suppression in the U.S. and other countries.
State Rep. Dean Dohrman said he was inspired to sponsor the bill, which would apply to students graduating after Aug. 28, 2019, because of the viral video showing Click and Greek life administrator Janna Basler attacking students Tim Tai and Mark Schierbecker.
Dohrman said he wants students to be able to distinguish between First Amendment rights and “the idea of civility,” because they clearly can’t now:
In his bill, Dohrman cited the results of a Pew Research poll, which found that 40 percent of millennials polled believe speech should be restricted or suppressed if it would be considered offensive to minorities.
Schierbecker and Tai also support the bill:
Missouri already requires harassment and diversity competence training, but Schierbecker said he thinks the university needs to add First Amendment competency to the list.
“Students need to be their own biggest advocates of their right to free speech,” he said. “If this bill passes, my hope is that students begin to educate the professors about what they’ve learned from the course.” …
“I doubt most students know much about the Constitution, or the government in general,” Tai said, adding that he thinks the bill would help First Amendment rights be explicitly articulated and understood.
Read the story and the bill.
RELATED: Missouri lawmakers want ‘immediate firing’ of Mizzou prof who attacked student journalist
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