April 2015
Lawsuit filed to reverse speech policies at Dixie State
Students at Dixie
State University have filed a lawsuit
against their school after administrators refused to approve their request to
distribute flyers to promote their libertarian club, hand outs that rebuked big
government by playfully lampooning George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Campus officials
denied the flyers on the grounds that they violated school policy, which does
not allow students to disparage others, according to the lawsuit. But the
students, members of Young Americans for Liberty, allege their free speech
rights have been infringed, and a leader of the group said in an interview
administrators are “silencing and marginalizing” them.
The lawsuit also
cites an incident in which a security guard for the Utah campus actively
monitored the group’s “free speech wall” display for so-called hate speech.
The plaintiffs –
students William Jergins, Joey Gillespie and Forrest Gee – have demanded in
their lawsuit that the public university’s “excessive” policies be revised to
comply with the First Amendment. They also seek monetary damages and legal
expenses.
“All YAL at Dixie
did was represent a view different from that of the administration at Dixie
State and the status quo, and because of that we were barred from promoting our
club and marginalized in pursuing the activities we wanted to on campus,”
Jergins said in an interview with The College Fix.“Especially on a
university campus, people who represent differing views and are brave enough to
stand up and express them should be celebrated.”
One flyer stated
“learn to hold your leaders accountable” and featured a picture of President
Bush with the caption “miss me yet?” next to a photograph of a grumpy cat with
the caption “Why aren’t you in prison?” Another flyer featured President Obama
with the air quote: “Get in my BELLYYYY!” over the caption “don’t be consumed by
the state!” The third flyer pictured Che Guevara with the words “real rebels
don’t support centralized state authority.” Each flyer also listed the time,
date and location of the group’s meetings.
The
three flyers were reviewed last October by the dean of students and the
administrative assistant to the dean of
students and were denied because they “mocked individuals” in violation of Dixie
State policies, the lawsuit stated, adding the flyers were only approved for
distribution after the students agreed to remove the images of the three
political figures.
The lawsuit also
states the university’s director of student involvement and leadership told
members of the libertarian campus group that their request to set up a “free
speech wall” could only be held in a designated “free speech zone” on campus.
But the free speech
zone is located in an area on campus with no classroom buildings, so students
have little reason to pass by, the lawsuit states. Moreover, the “free speech
zone” comprises only around 0.1 percent of Dixie State University’s 100-acre
campus, the suit adds.
What’s more, a
campus police officer spent 30 minutes looking over the “free speech wall” to
search for anything that could be deemed “hate speech,” according to
the lawsuit. The presence of the officer
during the October event also caused student participation to decrease, it
alleges.
Overall, Jergins
said, the university is “silencing and marginalizing” the club by limiting the
free expression of ideas and thoughts on campus.
“It is our right
not only as students and citizens of the United States, but as human beings [to]
express our opinions and be heard by those who are willing to listen,” Jergins
said. “It is also our right as human beings to hear and learn from the opinions
of others when they are brave enough to express them.”
He continued:
“Regrettably, Dixie State’s administration has chosen to pretend as if we are
neither students, United States citizens, nor even human beings and has not only
completely ignored but actively infringed upon our rights as such. So we’re
suing so that our rights, and the rights our fellow and future students will be
recognized and respected.”
When contacted by
The College Fix, a Dixie State spokesman declined to comment on pending
litigation.
As for potentially
being ostracized on campus by peers, faculty and administrators for taking the
legal action, Jergins told The College Fix he has not encountered any
backlash, adding administrators have yet to contact him about the lawsuit, nor
release a statement on it.
He also said the
students with whom he has spoken have all been very supportive of his efforts.
“The restrictive
policies at Dixie State, I feel, have made it very hard to start clubs and to
get them operative and attracting new members after they’re started,” Jergins
said. “In speaking with other students, it has been my impression that they’ve
recognized this and know firmly both what a restriction it puts on student life
and on their learning environment.”
The lawsuit was
filed in conjunction with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
“Dixie State is a
public university bound by the First Amendment, and the First Amendment is quite
clear that you have the unequivocal right to criticize or mock political
figures,” FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff said
in a statement. “One has to wonder how Dixie State students can engage in
serious political discussions—or any discussion at all—when they are forced to
follow the university’s ridiculous policies, which go so far as to forbid any
poster in a residence hall that students or administrators can claim creates an
‘uncomfortable’ environment.”
College Fix reporter Andrew Desiderio is a student at George Washington University
The College Fix, March 27, 2015.
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