Even jerks are protected by the First Amendment

A group of students at McGuffey High School in Claysville, PA, held an “Anti-Gay Day” protest at school, apparently in response to the “Day of Silence” sponsored by the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance.

The anti-gays wore flannel shirts and wrote “anti-gay” and drew crosses on the backs of their hands. That seems like protected speech to me.

But there are also claims that intimidating flyers were put on the lockers of gay students and that someone circulated a “lynch list” (whatever that means). That strikes me as bordering on assault.

Everybody seems to be joining the fray, from Sue Kerr of the Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents to Tim Wildmon of the American Family Association. And so has your Bitemaster.

Pa. high schoolers dress up for ‘Anti-Gay Day’ – NY Daily News.

And see Students At Pennsylvania’s McGuffey High School Organize ‘Anti-Gay Day’ And Allegedly Target LGBT Classmates

Cf: In College and Hiding From Scary Ideas: Universities, rather than being forums for free expression, are encouraging “safe spaces” to protect delicate sensibilities: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/opinion/sunday/judith-shulevitz-hiding-from-scary-ideas.html?ref=opinion&_r=1

6 thoughts on “Even jerks are protected by the First Amendment”

A few months back, the Bitemaster formulated this:
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THE PROPER ROLE OF A COLLEGE

All ideas are fair game. Members of the college community are not.
You can study, praise or criticize:
• Marx
• Protocols of the Elders of Zion
• Mein Kampf
• Wicca
• The Bible
• The Quran
• Theism
• Atheism
• Judaism
• Buddhism
• Patriotism
• Matriarchy
• Abortion
• The nuclear family
• Sodomy
• Malcolm X
• Che Guevara
• Abraham Lincoln
• Jesus
• Rick Santorum
• God
• Democracy
• The Geneva Conventions
• NAFTA
You cannot exclude, mock, bully, threaten or demean members of the college community. At all. Ever. That means that criticism of Christians, Communists, Jews, Fascists, Blacks, Women, Gays, Whites, WASPS, straights, men, midgets, stoners, veterans, and fetishists is off limits.

Organizing is frowned upon. If it leads to the exclusion, mocking, bullying, threatening or demeaning of members of the college community, it will be banned.

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Why bring this up now? Because of this item in the New York Post, “Columbia student activists: Protest with us, or else!” — http://nypost.com/2015/11/15/columbia-students-say-theyre-being-intimidated-to-protest/

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