The following article was submitted by Sixth District Delegate Robin Grammer about the lack of free speech at Maryland colleges.
The United States of America was founded upon an unwavering commitment to individual liberty and to the principle of free expression. The first amendment that our Founding Fathers made to the Constitution protected the right to free speech.
Today, this fundamental right is denied and diminished for students on Maryland’s college campuses.
Unfortunately, many colleges in Maryland are more interested in silencing unpopular or uncomfortable opinions.
Freedom of speech on college campuses matters as universities exist to pursue truth, develop independent thinking and prepare citizens for a frequently disagreeable world. When speech is restricted, those core purposes erode.
According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) – a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to the advancement of free speech in the United States – Maryland colleges are among the worst violators of freedom of speech in the country. In terms of protecting free speech, our state’s college campuses have an overall grade of D-, with failing grades in both political tolerance and administrative support for free speech.
In the past year alone there have been massive freedom of speech infractions at major campuses like Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland.
We consistently see how pressuring administration can help cancel dissenting speech – canceling events due to date and time, location or even going as far as requiring prohibitive security fees to hold an event.
Rising opposition to free expression on college campuses is more than just an institutional problem, however.
According to polls conducted by FIRE, support for free speech among college students in our state has declined in recent years.
Today, nearly eighty percent of students believe that shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus is acceptable, and over thirty percent believe that it is okay to use violence to stop someone from speaking on campus. We are teaching young people that deplatforming or “canceling” the opposition is the solution.
This is a fascist tactic of the Nazis that we must vociferously oppose.
We can look to other countries to see the consequence of not acting.
In Britain, average people are sent to jail for years for social media posts found to be distasteful by some while the country suffers from an unabated rape gangs that terrorize communities and chronically abuse young women.
Canceling free speech leads to a world of turning away from our problems – emotion and toxic empathy become the drivers for enforcement.
In the next legislative session, I will be sponsoring legislation that will shield student freedom of speech from the administrative handcuffs of college campuses and provide a cause of action against campuses that impinge on student speech.
Free speech is not a privilege; it is a constitutional right. We must demand this for our youth. The future of our country depends on it.
