Schools Struggle With Balancing
Free Speech Rights and Hate Speech Wrongs
By Ray Marcano
Schools across the country increasingly confront a difficult challenge --- embracing free speech while condemning intolerant remarks and punishing those who utter them. Whether in New Jersey, Alabama, or Indiana, several K-12 and college school districts have faced this issue over the last year and handled them in different ways.
“The complete lack of regard for the sensitivities of Muslims demonstrated by his posts, in our opinion, disqualify him for a position with that responsibility,” the council’s executive director James Sues said in an email.
But Leonard told Hatewatch the council is a “terrorist connected organization.” Leonard said, via Facebook, that he has nothing against Muslims, but, “My problem is with Sharia law in the United States.” (Far-right groups have pushed legislation banning the application of Sharia law in American courts, an unnecessary exercise since the Constitution takes precedent over any foreign laws.)
The Leonard case also illustrates how different boards handle hate speech. Leonard resigned his state board sea, saying there was no reason to remain since he wasn’t running for another term. Despite protests, Leonard, has refused to resign from the Toms River School Board, where he served as the Ocean County representative to the state board. The Toms River school board, as of this writing, has taken no action.
Toms River referred question to its attorney, who could not be reached.
The issue has taken on even more importance because of research that shows hate speech, either in person or online, can lead to hate crime. That doesn’t mean that the person making the intolerant remarks will carry out an act of violence, but someone inspired by the remarks just might.
“Indeed, people can be influenced by inciting speech, and hateful remarks can increase the probability that hate crimes ensue,” Dr. Richard Ashby Wilson, a professor of anthropology and law at the University of Connecticut, told Hatewatch via email. “There is more and more evidence for this assertion as researchers find correlations between hate speech on social media and documented hate crimes.”
Another research paper, this one by Raphael Cohen-Almagor of the University of Hull in England, examined the correlation between online hate speech and crime. He found “a positive relationship between internet penetration and offline racial hate crime,” and noted additional papers observing links between “hate sites and the and the incidence of racial hate crimes executed by lone wolf perpetrators.”
ohen-Almagor has written dozens of books and articles on subjects including hate speech. He has, among his many accomplishments, served as a visiting professor at UCLA and Johns Hopkins and won several prestigious fellowships.
ohen-Almagor, in a Skype interview, dismissed the notion of absolute free speech.
“To say it’s all about free speech is a misconception, it’s misleading, and utterly irresponsible,” he said. “It has nothing to do with free speech but abuse of free speech and with hated that’s very dangerous.”
He said schools struggle drawing the line between free speech and hate speech, but he sees a clear delineation. Advocacy is free speech; incitement is not. That’s why he advocates a “zero tolerance for anything that justifies violence towards individuals or groups.” More than the research findings, the recognition that intolerance doesn’t reflect an education system’s inclusive nature means school districts have to act.
But others say not so fast. Joan Berlin, the executive director of the National Council Against Censorship, warned that censoring speech, no matter how well intended, can go too far.
“Suppressing speech and ideas, by imposing a political orthodoxy, destroys candor, hampers students in working through their own ideas and disagreements, and undermines the ability of students to understand one another,” she wrote. “In addition, it can impede the educational program."
Still, words matter, and the language used by school officials and students’ mirrors language used by some of America’s most virulent hate groups. That isn’t to say that people who utter intolerant phrases have an active or overt association with hate groups. But the words themselves show the power of an echo chamber that can embed inappropriate words and phrases in our daily speech.
or example: In the April school board meeting in Indiana, Shepler noted a “rapid onset of dysphoria” can be influenced by media, social media, and student peers. Dysphoria references a person of a certain biological sex (male, for example) identifying with the opposite gender (female).
he anti-GBTQ Alliance Defending Freedom pushes a theory from a controversial university psychiatry professor that gender dysphoria is a “psychosocial, cultural media phenomenon.” Shepler did not respond to requests for comment. Leonard’s anti-Muslim writings also include, on his personal Facebook page, anti-Muslim conspiracy theories --- a tactic used by many anti-Muslim groups.
Leonard reposted a story from CBN News claiming that the district Omar represents has reportedly become the United State’s “terrorist recruitment capital.” Omar, the frequent target of anti-Muslim groups and individuals, has been the target of assassination threats and false rumors, including she married her Somali brother to get him United States citizenship. And the racial slurs used by the students in Alabama echo the common verbiage used by neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and white nationalists’ group. In the internet age, anyone can easily access these racist diatribes with a simple search.
Wilson, a distinguished academic has written 11 books and is currently developing a research project on incitement, hate speech, and hate crimes. He noted that school districts have “a hard balance to strike,” but they “must remember that these are children who deserve our protection and act in the best interests of the child.’ How do they do that?
“Free speech means that we can have a robust exchange of ideas,” Wilson said. “Sometimes people will express ideas that we find repugnant, and we can respond, civilly, with counter-speech that challenges their logic or evidence. There is a small class of speech acts that cross the line into incitement or true threat or defamation which cannot be tolerated.”
Schools across the country increasingly confront a difficult challenge --- embracing free speech while condemning intolerant remarks and punishing those who utter them. Whether in New Jersey, Alabama, or Indiana, several K-12 and college school districts have faced this issue over the last year and handled them in different ways.
- In June, an acting school board president in Indiana apologized after she made gender identity remarks that sparked an uproar.
- Two months earlier, Sylvia Shepler, the vice-president of the Hamilton Southeastern Schools board referred to gay or transgender peoples as having “this condition” and wondered why they were more popular today than in the past. Her remarks came as the school board debated how to phrase a non-discrimination policy. The board added sexual orientation and gender identity to the policy, a move Shepler opposed by voting no.
- The Hoover City, Alabama, city schools want to update its policy so it can punish students who make intolerant remarks outside of school. The schools superintendent pushed for the policy after two students wrote, on social media, racist and anti-Semitic remarks.
- And Daniel P. Leonard resigned as a member of the board of directors for the New Jersey School Board Association in July after posting anti-Muslim remarks on his Facebook account. Leonard, in a post that has since been deleted, posted a story on Facebook about Rep. Rashida Tlaib and wrote, “My life would be complete is she/they died.” He also posted “terrorist” over a photo of Rep. Ilhan Omar.
“The complete lack of regard for the sensitivities of Muslims demonstrated by his posts, in our opinion, disqualify him for a position with that responsibility,” the council’s executive director James Sues said in an email.
But Leonard told Hatewatch the council is a “terrorist connected organization.” Leonard said, via Facebook, that he has nothing against Muslims, but, “My problem is with Sharia law in the United States.” (Far-right groups have pushed legislation banning the application of Sharia law in American courts, an unnecessary exercise since the Constitution takes precedent over any foreign laws.)
The Leonard case also illustrates how different boards handle hate speech. Leonard resigned his state board sea, saying there was no reason to remain since he wasn’t running for another term. Despite protests, Leonard, has refused to resign from the Toms River School Board, where he served as the Ocean County representative to the state board. The Toms River school board, as of this writing, has taken no action.
Toms River referred question to its attorney, who could not be reached.
The issue has taken on even more importance because of research that shows hate speech, either in person or online, can lead to hate crime. That doesn’t mean that the person making the intolerant remarks will carry out an act of violence, but someone inspired by the remarks just might.
“Indeed, people can be influenced by inciting speech, and hateful remarks can increase the probability that hate crimes ensue,” Dr. Richard Ashby Wilson, a professor of anthropology and law at the University of Connecticut, told Hatewatch via email. “There is more and more evidence for this assertion as researchers find correlations between hate speech on social media and documented hate crimes.”
Another research paper, this one by Raphael Cohen-Almagor of the University of Hull in England, examined the correlation between online hate speech and crime. He found “a positive relationship between internet penetration and offline racial hate crime,” and noted additional papers observing links between “hate sites and the and the incidence of racial hate crimes executed by lone wolf perpetrators.”
ohen-Almagor has written dozens of books and articles on subjects including hate speech. He has, among his many accomplishments, served as a visiting professor at UCLA and Johns Hopkins and won several prestigious fellowships.
ohen-Almagor, in a Skype interview, dismissed the notion of absolute free speech.
“To say it’s all about free speech is a misconception, it’s misleading, and utterly irresponsible,” he said. “It has nothing to do with free speech but abuse of free speech and with hated that’s very dangerous.”
He said schools struggle drawing the line between free speech and hate speech, but he sees a clear delineation. Advocacy is free speech; incitement is not. That’s why he advocates a “zero tolerance for anything that justifies violence towards individuals or groups.” More than the research findings, the recognition that intolerance doesn’t reflect an education system’s inclusive nature means school districts have to act.
But others say not so fast. Joan Berlin, the executive director of the National Council Against Censorship, warned that censoring speech, no matter how well intended, can go too far.
“Suppressing speech and ideas, by imposing a political orthodoxy, destroys candor, hampers students in working through their own ideas and disagreements, and undermines the ability of students to understand one another,” she wrote. “In addition, it can impede the educational program."
Still, words matter, and the language used by school officials and students’ mirrors language used by some of America’s most virulent hate groups. That isn’t to say that people who utter intolerant phrases have an active or overt association with hate groups. But the words themselves show the power of an echo chamber that can embed inappropriate words and phrases in our daily speech.
or example: In the April school board meeting in Indiana, Shepler noted a “rapid onset of dysphoria” can be influenced by media, social media, and student peers. Dysphoria references a person of a certain biological sex (male, for example) identifying with the opposite gender (female).
he anti-GBTQ Alliance Defending Freedom pushes a theory from a controversial university psychiatry professor that gender dysphoria is a “psychosocial, cultural media phenomenon.” Shepler did not respond to requests for comment. Leonard’s anti-Muslim writings also include, on his personal Facebook page, anti-Muslim conspiracy theories --- a tactic used by many anti-Muslim groups.
Leonard reposted a story from CBN News claiming that the district Omar represents has reportedly become the United State’s “terrorist recruitment capital.” Omar, the frequent target of anti-Muslim groups and individuals, has been the target of assassination threats and false rumors, including she married her Somali brother to get him United States citizenship. And the racial slurs used by the students in Alabama echo the common verbiage used by neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and white nationalists’ group. In the internet age, anyone can easily access these racist diatribes with a simple search.
Wilson, a distinguished academic has written 11 books and is currently developing a research project on incitement, hate speech, and hate crimes. He noted that school districts have “a hard balance to strike,” but they “must remember that these are children who deserve our protection and act in the best interests of the child.’ How do they do that?
“Free speech means that we can have a robust exchange of ideas,” Wilson said. “Sometimes people will express ideas that we find repugnant, and we can respond, civilly, with counter-speech that challenges their logic or evidence. There is a small class of speech acts that cross the line into incitement or true threat or defamation which cannot be tolerated.”
