Journalism Student Silenced at Arizona State University In Defense of Liberty
While America s colleges and universities should be embracing open discourse, the unfortunate reality is that free speech is frequently not welcome on campus. That s something Rae Lee Klein understands well.
In August, Klein a journalism student at Arizona State University, and manager of the student radio station shared a New York Post article on her personal Twitter account about the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The article discussed Blake s history, including his criminal record, and in her tweet, Klein encouraged her followers to consider all the facts surrounding this horrific event.
Klein s tweet was met with outrage from her classmates, who insisted that ASU remove her from her managing duties as the radio station. And unfortunately, the university did just that: Rather than promote the exchange of different points of view, Arizona State University removed Klein from her managing position. While Klein s post was not inflammatory or designed in any way to disturb or impair university operations, she did share information that wasn t popular with many of her fellow students or staff. But by punishing her, ASU not only violated Klein s free speech rights, it also violated journalistic ethics which [s]upport the open and civil exchange of views, even views [journalists] find repugnant. [1] In a situation where the university should remain neutral, it acted in a biased manner Klein s tweet even elicited personal criticism from the dean of the journalism school.