• Sam Houston State University: Faculty Member Takes Box Cutter to Students’ Free Speech Wall; Police Threaten Students with Misdemeanor

  September 23, 2011

  On September 22, 2011, the student groups SHSU Lovers of Liberty, Bearkat Democrats, Young Democratic Socialists, and College Republicans sponsored the display of a “free speech wall,” on which students were invited to write any message they wanted. When SHSU Professor Joe E. Kirk saw that someone had written “FUCK OBAMA” on the wall, he demanded that the student organizers cover up the message. When they refused, Kirk returned with a box cutter and cut out the word “FUCK.” On the advice of an SHSU administrator, the student groups contacted SHSU’s University Police Department to report Kirk’s vandalism. After SHSU […]

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Red Light Policies

• Student Guidelines: Code of Student Conduct and Discipline

  Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
  Last updated: September 22, 2016

  Campus disruptive activities (see subparagraph 5.4) or disorderly conduct on Component-owned or controlled property or at a Component-sponsored or supervised function that inhibit or interfere with the educational responsibility of the Component community or the Component’s social-educational activities shall include but not be limited to: using abusive, indecent, profane or vulgar language; making offensive gestures or displays that tend to incite a breach of the peace; perpetrating fights, assaults, acts of sexual violence, abuse, or threats; or evincing some obviously offensive manner or committing an act that causes a person to feel threatened.

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• Acceptable Use Policy

  Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
  Last updated: September 22, 2016

  All individuals are accountable for their actions relating to SHSU information technology resources. Direct violations include the following: … Intentionally accessing, creating, storing or transmitting material which SHSU may deem to be offensive, indecent or obscene (other than in the course of academic research or authorized administrative duties where this aspect of the research or work has the explicit approval of the SHSU official processes for dealing with academic ethical issues).

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• Student Guidelines: Code of Student Conduct and Discipline

  Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
  Last updated: September 22, 2016

  Harassment where the individual  threatens or bullies, in person, by telephone, electronically, in writing, or by other means, to take unlawful action against any person and by this action intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly annoys or alarms the recipient.

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• Student Guidelines: Parades, Publications, Demonstrations and Rallies

  Speech Code Category: Posting and Distribution Policies
  Last updated: September 22, 2016

  No group or person, whether or not a student or employee, shall publicly display, distribute, or disseminate on the component campus any petition, handbill, or piece of literature, work, or material that is obscene, vulgar, or libelous, or that advocates the deliberate violation of any federal, state, or local law.

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• Texas State University System Sexual Misconduct Policy and Procedures

  Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
  Last updated: September 22, 2016

  2.18 Sexual Harassment is any unwelcome verbal, nonverbal, written, electronic or physical behavior of a sexual nature directed at someone, or against a particular group, because of that person’s or group’s sex, or based on gender stereotypes, severe or pervasive, and where it meets either of the following criteria:

  …

  • 2.182 The behavior has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with another’s work or educational performance by creating an intimidating or hostile environment for employment, education, on-campus living or participation in a Component affiliated activity.
    • Examples of this type of sexual harassment can include, but are not limited to:
      • 2.1821 persistent unwelcome efforts to develop a romantic or sexual relationship;
      • 2.1822 unwelcome commentary about an individual’s body or sexual activities;
      • 2.1823 unwanted sexual attention;
      • 2.1824 repeatedly engaging in sexually-oriented conversations, comments or horseplay, including the use of language or the telling of jokes or anecdotes of a sexual nature in the workplace, office or classroom, even if such conduct is not objected to by those present; or
      • 2.1825 gratuitous use of sexually-oriented materials not directly related to the subject matter of a class, course or meeting even if not objected to by those present.

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• Residence Hall Handbook: Offensive/Obscene Materials

  Speech Code Category: Posting and Distribution Policies
  Last updated: September 22, 2016

  Students who hang/place items in their room that are in public view (windows, doors, bathrooms etc.) that the University determines to be offensive and/or obscene will be asked to remove the items immediately and may be subject to disciplinary action. The University reserves the right to enter a student’s room to remove items that are found offensive and/or obscene if the student is not present during the discovery.

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• Student Guidelines: Publications of Student Groups

  Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
  Last updated: September 22, 2016

  The university affirms its position that freedom of expression, as well as inquiry, is essential to a student’s educational development. Vigorous intellectual explorations by students may sometimes result in questioning of popular conceptions, and this in turn, may elicit the concern of society at large. One of the axioms upon which our nation was built, however, is that truth needs no protection, but is vital by vigorous debate in a market place where all ideas can be presented and then tested by the reason of free people.

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• Student Guidelines: Racial Harassment Policy

  Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
  Last updated: September 22, 2016

  “Racial Harassment” is defined as extreme or outrageous acts or communications that are intended to harass, intimidate, or humiliate students, faculty, staff, or visitors on account of race, color, or national origin and that reasonably cause them to suffer severe emotional distress.

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• State University Promising to “Evaluate” Student’s Tweet Critical of Murdered Police Officer

  September 6, 2015

  By Eugene Volokh at The Washington Post The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has the story. Some excerpts: The [Sam Houston State University] controversy was touched off by a tweet from student Monica Foy criticizing the response to the shooting death of Harris County sheriff’s deputy Darren Goforth on August 28. Foy’s tweet, posted yesterday morning, read, “I can’t believe so many people care about a dead cop and NO ONE has thought to ask what he did to deserve it. He had creepy perv eyes …” … Given the freshness of Goforth’s death and its brutal nature, it’s […]

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• Student Tweets Slain Texas Cop May Have Deserved It, Then Gets Arrested On Outstanding Warrant

  September 2, 2015

  By Blake Neff at The Daily Caller A student at a Texas college is facing ridicule and possible criminal prosecution after she tweeted out that murdered Texas police officer Darren Goforth may have deserved to die because of his “creepy perv eyes.” Goforth was ambushed and killed Friday at a Houston gas station, sparking outrage across the country. On Tuesday, Sam Houston State University (SHSU) student Monica Foy posted a tweet saying the outrage over Goforth’s death might be premature. Foy’s comment quickly went viral and attracted a great deal of negative attention. She soon deleted the tweet, and by Wednesday both […]

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• [VIDEO] Police and Professor Censor Anti-Obama Remarks on University’s Free Speech Wall

  October 2, 2012

  Forget the First Amendment. Forget Freedom of Speech. Forget going through all the proper channels to express your rights as an American. In an explosive new video, FIRE, an individual rights organization exposes how one university managed to stifle the Constitutional rights of its students. Last year, students at Sam Houston State University erected a “free speech wall” in which any student could write anything he or she wanted upon that wall as an expression of their first amendment rights. But as soon as an anti—Obama remark was written, a professor, with the help of the campus police, managed to have it censored because […]

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• University ditches controversial social media rules

  December 13, 2011

  Sam Houston State University’s social media policy that drew heated criticism from a national free-speech organization and student groups has been nixed by campus officials. Administrators on the 17,000-student public campus in Huntsville, Texas, said they would scrap the Social Media Policy and Procedure Manual that was protested by disparate campus political groups, opting instead to create a new set of rules from scratch. The school’s policy stipulated that any student group that uses the university’s name or abbreviation must join the official SHSU social media universe or change their name. A student group would have to change its name to something that […]

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• Controversial social media rules spark student backlash

  October 2, 2011

  SHSU student groups might have to change their names in accordance with new school policy. Sam Houston State University’s controversial social media policy is perhaps the only thing that could unite the campus’s College Republicans, College Democrats, and the Young Democratic Socialists: The groups have joined together to protest rules that could affect their presence of Twitter and Facebook. SHSU, a 17,000-student public campus in Huntsville, Texas, rolled out a new policy for university-related social media this semester, creating a “social media universe” that student groups can join on popular social sites where students communicate and announcements are made and […]

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• Censored Obama insult: Prof. slashes Free Speech on Texas campus with box cutter

  September 25, 2011

  Since 9/11, box cutters have had a bad name. In 9/11, it was life that was at risk, now at Sam Houston University (SHSU) in Texas, it is  liberty, Freedom of Speech, that has been literally slashed away – by a box cutter in the hand of a professor. September 24, according to the Houstonian, the Foundation for Individual Rights for Students (FIRE) is now involved and has sent a letter to Sam Houston State University, expressing their “deepest concern”  regarding the decision “to censor students’ expression on a “free speech wall” on campus”. An article published on the Daily […]

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• National rights group writes letter to SHSU President, gets response

  September 23, 2011

  The box-cutter wielding professor and SHSU University Police Department are the targets of a letter sent to University President Dana Gibson by a national civil rights group. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) tells Gibson the group is “deeply concerned” by the actions taken by both the professor and the UPD at the “Free Speech Wall” protest on Sept. 22. Students organizing the event were protesting the proposed SHSU Social Media Policy and Procedures Manual. The “Wall” was a collection of wooden boards, covered with white parchment paper, that spanned the width of the Lee Drain Building atrium on the […]

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• Policy protesters take down sign after use of profanity, damages

  September 22, 2011

  The ‘Free Speech Wall,’ elected as a form of protest against SHSU’s new social media policy, was taken down after a confrontation between a professor and student event organizers resulted in a section of the sign being cut out, according to police and event officials. A math professor, whose name has not been confirmed, complained to event organizers that sections of the sign reading “Fuck Obama,” and other such terms, were offensive and needed to be removed. Officials said after a verbal confrontation, the professor returned with a box-cutter and removed the section himself. University police were then called and collected […]

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• Proposed social media policy draws criticism from campus community

  September 15, 2011

  –Senior Reporter McKinzie Brocail contributed to this report– A newly proposed social media policy from the Marketing and Communication department has some student organizations, faculty and staff questioning the policy’s potential restrictions on Constitutional rights and the way in which it was created. The policy allows the university the right to remove any material from groups that might paint the university in a bad light. It immediately raised some concern among some members of the Faculty Senate. Read the Offical SHSU Media Policy and Procedures. Paul Loeffler, chair of the Faculty Affairs Subcommittee, said. “(The administration) cannot physically or financially, control all of the propaganda. I do […]

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• Update: Citing First Amendment, SHSU Won’t Punish Student for Tweet

  September 8, 2015

  Sam Houston State University says it will not take action against a student whose controversial tweet stirred internet outrage, including calls for the school to punish her, because the tweet is protected by the First Amendment. SHSU President Dana Hoyt said student Monica Foy’s now-deleted tweet questioning what slain Texas deputy Darren Goforth did to deserve his death was “insensitive and inflammatory”—and also not a crime. Dear @SamHoustonState Current student @monicafoycan disrespected fallen Houston deputy on Twitter. Pls address #tcot pic.twitter.com/04oNh9Qnwj — WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot (@aleykhat) September 1, 2015 “A personal comment made on a private social media account, as offensive as […]

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• Sam Houston State University Caves to Internet Mob, Promises to Investigate Student for Tweet

  September 2, 2015

  You might remember that at the end of last year, FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff dubbed 2014 “The Year of the Heckler.” There’s still a ways to go with 2015, but recent events are making a compelling case to dub it “The Year of the Tattler.” We recently publicized, for instance, that Texas Christian University (TCU) suspended student Harry Vincent for postings Vincent made on Facebook and Twitter after a non-student living in Maryland complained to TCU about their content and rounded up an Internet posse to call for Vincent’s punishment. Now Sam Houston State University (SHSU), another Texas […]

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• Student at IU Attempts to Censor Fellow Students by Vandalizing Pro-Life Display

  October 1, 2013

  FIRE often exposes how colleges censor students—but last week, it was a student at Indiana University who decided to engage in some vigilante censorship by vandalizing a pro-life display. According to a student account, new student organization Students for Life at IU intended to have a peaceful demonstration on campus as part of an organized protest dubbed the “Planned Parenthood Project.” The trouble reportedly began when a student approached the demonstration, removed wooden crosses meant to represent the number of abortions performed daily by Planned Parenthood from the ground, and threw them into a trash can. (The student report includes a photo of this.) […]

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• School’s Censorship Policy Doesn’t Fly

  October 5, 2012

  by Robert Shibley One News Now   An attorney believes a student-initiated free-speech effort got the point across to administrators at their Texas college. “The wall was put up in response to a policy at Sam Houston [that] was actually going to require all student groups to turn over their social media accounts to the university so that they could edit or delete comments that the groups made,” Shibley details. “And the students were understandably very upset about that.”Sam Houston State University students initiated the free-speech wall to protest the school’s policy that demands access to the students’ private social […]

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• Robert Shibley on ‘Cam & Co.’ Tonight with Morgan Freeman!

  October 2, 2012

  In case you missed it, FIRE released a new video yesterday that’s making quite an impact! In it, Sam Houston State University student Morgan Freeman tells the shocking story of the free speech wall she organized along with four campus groups: how a professor literally cut out an anti-Obama comment with a utility knife and, when campus police supported the professor, how her group came to FIRE for help. Tonight at 10:20 p.m. Eastern time, Morgan will share her story live on the NRA News show “Cam & Company.” FIRE’s Senior Vice President Robert Shibley will join her to talk […]

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• Need More Reasons to Watch FIRE’s Latest Video?

  October 1, 2012

  Hopefully you don’t need us to give you more reasons to watch FIRE’s newest video about the shocking censorship last year at Sam Houston State University, where a professor used a box cutter to remove profanity from a student-sponsored “free speech wall.” In case you do, though, FIRE’s Greg Lukianoff and Robert Shibley have a pair of columns for you. Writing for College Insurrection and The Daily Caller, respectively, Greg and Robert make the case for defending expression on campus even when many might see it as having little or no value. As Greg writes, “I am in full agreement […]

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• New FIRE Video: College Professor Censors Anti-Obama Comment on Free Speech Wall

  October 1, 2012

  Last year, college censorship took a turn for the ridiculous when a professor at Sam Houston State University vandalized a student-sponsored “free speech wall” with a box-cutting knife to remove anti-President Obama speech he didn’t like. When the students complained about the vandalism to the campus police, the police took the professor’s side and demanded still more censorship, leading students to dismantle the wall. Morgan Freeman, the student who organized the protest, recounts this amazing and disturbing story in FIRE’s latest video. (Warning: strong language.)

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• ‘Problem’: Offensive speech. ‘Solution’: Censorship and vandalism?

  October 1, 2012

  by Robert Shibley The Daily Caller   Because of the uproar over the YouTube video that was said to have led to uprisings against American interests in the Muslim world — including the death of our ambassador to Libya and three others — Americans are being confronted with a couple of unfortunate facts. First, while Americans generally tolerate all manner of offensive or annoying speech under the First Amendment, those in foreign lands often don’t have much tolerance for free speech. Second, while Americans at large widely scorn the idea that we should implement censorship in this country because some […]

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• Thomas Jefferson Center Awards “Muzzles” to Censors at Catawba Valley, Sam Houston State

  April 12, 2012

  Every year since 1992, the good folks at the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression award their annual “Jefferson Muzzles” to recognize those across the nation “who in the preceding year committed some of the more egregious or ridiculous affronts to the First Amendment right of free speech.” And just about every year, a Muzzle or two ends up being awarded to someone on a college campus. Surprised? Neither are we!  This year, two schools earned well-deserved Muzzles by stifling student speech in shocking ways. Torch readers will remember that FIRE intervened in both cases.  First, the […]

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• Sam Houston State Social Media Policy One of Most Read Stories of 2011 in ‘Chronicle’ List

  December 21, 2011

  Wired Campus, a technology-themed blog of The Chronicle of Higher Education, has published its “10 Most Popular Wired Campus Articles of 2011” list this week. Seventh on the list is an October feature on Sam Houston State University’s controversial social media policy, which sparked waves of student protest at SHSU, including a “free speech wall” event begetting its own controversies over free speech at SHSU. Fortunately, SHSU ultimately decided to ditch the proposed policy. The many thousands of reads garnered by Wired Campus’ writeup can’t have hurt the effort, and we’re glad to see that it reached so many people. 

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• More on Sam Houston State Dropping Creepy Social Media Policy

  December 19, 2011

  Last week, eCampusNews drew attention to the news of Sam Houston State University’s (SHSU’s) decision to ditch its proposed social media policy. The policy, which would have required any student group bearing the SHSU name to join the university’s “social media universe,” was the subject of controversy and student protest. Under the proposed rule, those student groups choosing not to comply would have been required to change their groups’ names. The policy would also have required student groups to hand over their emails and passwords, and allowed administrators to edit student group pages. The abandonment of the policy is due […]

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• Sam Houston State University Throws Out Controversial Social Media Policy

  November 17, 2011

  Last month, FIRE announced via a national press release that a professor at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) had used a box cutter to cut an insult against President Obama out of a “free speech wall” promoted by four student organizations across the political spectrum. The free speech wall had been erected (with permission from SHSU) in order to protest a proposed new social media policy. But when the students called the campus police after the professor’s act of censorship (and vandalism), an officer demanded that the students censor the wall or else face criminal charges for having offended the professor. […]

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• Restrictive Social Media Policy at Sam Houston State U. Exposed at ‘eCampus News’

  October 7, 2011

  The website eCampus News has reported on the dual controversies swirling around Sam Houston State University (SHSU): the university’s deeply restrictive proposed social media policy and its outrageous censorship of a student “free speech wall.” The site’s Dennis Carter writes: The student backlash to the new policies culminated Sept. 22 when the disparate campus political groups sponsored a “free speech wall” and invited students to write anything they wanted on the wall – a protest against what students and free speech advocates have called a trampling of constitutional rights. “The social media policy is in theory optional, but if it means […]

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• Professor Takes Box Cutter to Students’ Free Speech Wall at Sam Houston State University; Police Threaten Students with Charges over Profanity about President Obama

  October 6, 2011

  HOUSTON, Oct. 6, 2011—Two weeks ago, a professor at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) used a box cutter to cut an insult against President Obama out of a “free speech wall” promoted by four student organizations. When campus police arrived, an officer demanded that the students censor the wall or else face criminal charges for having offended the professor. The students have come to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help. “This is an astounding example of the ‘heckler’s veto,’ where one professor decided he could dictate what everyone else is allowed to say—and the campus police actually […]

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• Speech Code of the Month: Sam Houston State University

  October 3, 2011

  FIRE announces its Speech Code of the Month for October 2011: Sam Houston State University in Texas. Sam Houston State University’s (SHSU’s) Code of Student Conduct [.pdf] prohibits, as disorderly conduct, the use of “abusive, indecent, profane or vulgar language.” While a policy like this may seem at first blush to prohibit only low-value speech, FIRE’s current case at SHSU demonstrates that even core political expression is threatened by such a ban. As an initial matter, it is important to understand that profanity and vulgarity are entitled to constitutional protection.  In Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15 (1971), the U.S. Supreme […]

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• SHSU Students Protest Social Media Policy With Signs, Slogans, and ‘Censored Free Speech Wall’

  October 3, 2011

    Photo by The Huntsville Item The fight for free speech continues at Sam Houston State University, where nearly a dozen students congregated in the center of campus last Wednesday in protest of SHSU’s new Social Media Policy and Procedures Manual. The event also served to protest the actions of professor Joe Kirk and the SHSU University Police Department regarding the vandalized free speech wall during the original protest of the controversial policy. Indeed, the same four student groups who organized the original protest were involved in planning Wednesday’s event. According to The Huntsville Item, protesters donned signs with slogans such […]

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• At Sam Houston State University, Debate Over New Social Media Policy Rages On

  September 28, 2011

  Sam Houston State University’s (SHSU’s) proposed Social Media Policy and Procedures Manual is receiving anything but a warm welcome from students on campus. Opposition to the proposition has emerged in the form of protests planned today for the campus’ mall area, with the main event being a “censored free speech wall” that Morgan Freeman, president of the SHSU Lovers of Liberty, describes as being “basically a free speech wall but we are going to cover up ‘profane’ things.” Groups protesting the new social media policy include the SHSU Lovers of Liberty, Young Democratic-Socialists, Bearkat Democrats, and the College Republicans-the same […]

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• SHSU President Says Free Speech Wall Vandalism by Professor ‘Under Investigation’

  September 27, 2011

  The past few days have brought public scrutiny to bear on Sam Houston State University (SHSU) after its police department not only failed to address student complaints over a professor’s vandalism—with a box cutter—of their “free speech wall,” but also threatened to charge the students with disorderly conduct on the basis of four-letter words written on the wall.  Late in the day on September 23, while readers nationwide were learning of the case in outlets such as The Daily Caller, SHSU President Dana Gibson sent a brief response to FIRE’s letter. Here it is in full: Sam Houston State University respects the principles of freedom of speech. […]

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• Sam Houston State University Student Newspaper on Free Speech Wall Vandalism

  September 27, 2011

  Today, The Houstonian, a student newspaper at Sam Houston State University (SHSU), has a thorough article about the vigilante censorship of four student groups’ “Free Speech Wall” by SHSU professor Joe Kirk, and FIRE’s efforts on behalf of the wronged students. The article points out that student Morgan Freeman has filed a complaint about the vandalism with the university police, and that the report has been sent to the Huntsville Municipal Court. FIRE will be watching to see if SHSU takes this complaint as seriously as is warranted.

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• Morgan Freeman, Student Censored in ‘Box Cutter’ Case, Speaks Out

  September 26, 2011

  Morgan Freeman, a student at Sam Houston State University and leader of the SHSU Lovers of Liberty, writes today on the Students for Liberty blog about her group’s experience with Kafkaesque campus censorship. As we reported on The Torch last week, when a professor took a box cutter to the group’s free speech wall, they reported his vandalism to campus police-who then threatened the students with a misdemeanor charge. This incident is not the first time that a free speech wall on campus has sparked controversy. In the 2010-2011 school year, FIRE reported on two other incidents involving free speech […]

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• In ‘Daily Caller,’ Robert Rips on Sam Houston State ‘Box Cutter’ Case

  September 23, 2011

  FIRE has been quick to act on a ridiculous free speech case at Sam Houston State University (SHSU), where a professor took it upon himself to vandalize student speech on a “free speech wall” with no less than a box cutter. As Adam wrote earlier, we have already sent a letter to SHSU President Dana L. Gibson, informing President Gibson that the professor’s act-cutting out a section of the free speech wall where students had written “FUCK OBAMA,” due to his apparent disagreement with that message-betrays the freedom of speech to which SHSU students are entitled at the public university. This would have been […]

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• Professor Cuts Out Insult to Obama on Students’ ‘Free Speech Wall’ with Box Cutter; Police Threaten Students with Misdemeanor for Public Profanity

  September 23, 2011

  Sometimes here at FIRE we think we’ve seen it all. Yesterday, however, we were shocked by the outrageous violations of free speech at Sam Houston State University (SHSU).   To protest a controversial new social media policy, four SHSU student groups organized a “free speech wall,” a large field of paper with a wooden frame, upon which students could write the message of their choice. Someone wrote “FUCK OBAMA” on one section of the wall, and other students replied in kind: “FUCK BUSH” followed, as well as other comments.  But what happened next is what’s so outrageous. An SHSU faculty member offended […]

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