A victory for free speech? Blatant overkill? Or both? “A Fresno State professor will pay $17,000 and undergo first amendment training after he erased students’ anti-abortion chalk messages on campus, according to Alliance Defending Freedom.” [Mackenzie Mays, Fresno Bee]
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It’s hard to put a price tag on such things. $15,000 of that $17,000 went to the organization that represented them in court, and two students got $1000 each.
This was pretty blatant. The professor told them they couldn’t do this outside the free speech zone, which is obnoxious enough… except the university doesn’t even HAVE a free speech zone anymore. Current policy said the students could do that. It’s possible that the professor’s knowledge was a few years out of date, but they also told the professor that they had specific permission, and he couldn’t be bothered to verify that, but kept erasing. The professor not only erased messages himself, he told students (allegedly from a class he was teaching) to help him remove the messages. Depending on the exact timing it’s possible that some of this happened during class time, or at least that it caused the students or professor be late for class.
As a bonus affront to the First Amendment, the students helping to erase the messages said repeatedly that recording them doing this was illegal. Maybe the professor can’t be blamed for that, but he sure didn’t go out of his way to correct the students. More bonus points for the professor claiming that defacing the messages was just his free speech.
If it was in the professors assigned classroom, he should have complete control of what is on the chalk boards in that classroom. The students have no rights to take control of classroom assets.
If you had RTFA, you would know the chalk messages were on concrete walkways on the campus grounds, not in the classrooms. They have been used in the past for other messages about public controversies without incident.