Category: Due Process, Free Speech, Freedom of Conscience
Schools:
Hamline University
Hamline University suspended a student after he sent an e-mail suggesting that the Virginia Tech massacre might have been stopped if students had been allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus. Student Troy Scheffler was required to undergo a mandatory “mental health evaluation” before being allowed to return to school. Scheffler was suspended without due process just two days after sending the e-mail.
Hamline University’s Freedom of Expression and Inquiry Policy
-
Why can’t students say ‘guns’ in school?
April 21, 2009
by Glenn Garvin Miami Herald Media snicker of the day: those crazy gun nuts, worried that the government is out to snatch their constitutional rights along with their AK-47s. 60 Minutes is the latest to have a chuckle, playing a commercial for a Washington, D.C.-area firearms show that that urges viewers to “Celebrate the Second Amendment and get your guns while you still can!” My own hunch is that the sheer number of Americans who own guns (the low estimate is something over 40 million) will keep their Second Amendment rights off the endangered-species list for the foreseeable future. […]
» Read More -
Loss of free inquiry on campus betrays liberal legacy
October 24, 2007
The newest big controversy about free speech on campus focuses on the case of a Hamline University graduate student in Minnesota who has been ordered to undergo psychological evaluation after expressing his political disagreements with campus diversity policies alongside a rather bone-headed reference to Virginia Tech. Although the student is a long-time gadfly who seems to revel in poking the Hamline administration with a stick, the case is important for precisely that reason. Freedom of speech is easy to support when the speech is politically correct or when dissent from political correctness is expressed with timidity and apology. It is […]
» Read More -
College Admins: If you favor Second Amendment rights, you must be crazy
October 17, 2007
A Minnesota college student was suspended and ordered to undergo “mental health evaluation” for his response to campuswide e-mails from school officials concerning the Virginia Tech massacre. The college, Hamline University, a private, liberal-arts institution affiliated with the Methodist Church, has a policy on “Freedom of Expression and Inquiry” that guarantees that Hamline students will be “free to examine and discuss all questions of interest to them and to express opinions publicly or privately.” With such a strong guarantee on students’ “freedom from censorship and control” by the university, student Troy Scheffler’s e-mail must have been horrifically bad to warrant […]
» Read More -
Minnesota College suspends student for advocating gun rights
October 15, 2007
After discovering one of its students had sent an e-mail urging students be permitted to carry concealed weapons in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings that took place in April 2007 and killed 32 people, Hamline University in Minnesota not only suspended the student, Troy Scheffler, but university officials ordered Mr. Scheffler undergo a psychiatric evaluation before being permitted to return to school. “Hamline’s punishment of Troy Scheffler is severe, unfair and apparently unwarranted,” stated Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a Philadelphia-based civil rights advocacy group assisting Mr. Scheffler with this issue. […]
» Read More -
Student advocates gun rights, gets suspended; Church-affiliated university to require mental evaluation before return allowed
October 11, 2007
A Christian church-affiliated university in St. Paul, Minn., has suspended a student after he raised questions about the campus ban on concealed weapons, and is ordering him to have a mental health evaluation before he can resume his education. The Hamline University case involves student Troy Scheffler, who, after the Virginia Tech massacre where a student shot and killed nearly three dozen others, suggested the killing spree might have been stopped if students had been allowed to carry concealed weapons. “Questioning administrators on controversial topics isn’t going to be a threat even if the conversation involves guns,” Robert Shibley, vice […]
» Read More -
Banning guns (and opinions about guns) in college
October 11, 2007
In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings in April, Hamline University student Troy Scheffler writes emails (in response to emails from them sent to the student body) to the president and vice-president for student affairs of the Minnesota university, complaining about his school’s no-weapons and diversity policies. He is suspended pending a mental health evaluation. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) comes to his defense. From FIRE’s press release: FIRE wrote to [university] President [Linda] Hanson on May 29, 2007, vehemently opposing the sanctions against Scheffler, since neither of Scheffler’s e-mails even came close to meeting the […]
» Read More -
Grad student suspended after pro-gun-rights e-mail
October 10, 2007
A Minnesota university has suspended one of its graduate students who sent two e-mail messages to school officials supporting gun rights. Hamline University also said that master’s student Troy Scheffler, who owns a firearm, would be barred from campus and must receive a mandatory “mental health evaluation” after he sent an e-mail message arguing that law-abiding students should be able to carry firearms on campus for self-defense. Hamline spokesman Jacqueline Getty declined on Wednesday to answer questions about the suspension, saying that federal privacy laws prohibited the school from commenting. Scheffler had previously waived his privacy rights in a letter […]
» Read More
-
FIRE Launches New Video Series With Short Film on Censorship of Gun-Related Speech
June 30, 2010
PHILADELPHIA, June 30, 2010—Today, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is proud to release a new short film, “Empty Holsters: Gun Speech on America’s Campuses,” highlighting widespread campus censorship of student speech about guns. The film is the first in a new FIRE series focusing on how colleges and universities across America are preventing students and faculty members from speaking out on the weightiest political issues of the day. “In the wake of Monday’s Supreme Court decision in McDonald v. Chicago, debate about the Second Amendment and gun rights is sure to be hotter than ever,” said FIRE […]
» Read More -
Minnesota College suspends student for advocating gun rights
October 15, 2007
After discovering one of its students had sent an e-mail urging students be permitted to carry concealed weapons in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings that took place in April 2007 and killed 32 people, Hamline University in Minnesota not only suspended the student, Troy Scheffler, but university officials ordered Mr. Scheffler undergo a psychiatric evaluation before being permitted to return to school. “Hamline’s punishment of Troy Scheffler is severe, unfair and apparently unwarranted,” stated Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a Philadelphia-based civil rights advocacy group assisting Mr. Scheffler with this issue. […]
» Read More -
Hamline University Student Suspended After Advocating Concealed Carry for Students
October 10, 2007
ST. PAUL, Minn., October 10, 2007—Hamline University has suspended a student after he sent an e-mail suggesting that the Virginia Tech massacre might have been stopped if students had been allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus. Student Troy Scheffler is now required to undergo a mandatory “mental health evaluation” before being allowed to return to school. Scheffler, who was suspended without due process just two days after sending the e-mail, has turned to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help. “Hamline’s punishment of Troy Scheffler is severe, unfair, and apparently unwarranted,” FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. […]
» Read More
