Mizzou Student VP: First Amendment Creates ‘Hostile And Unsafe Learning Environment’
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Good learning would be understanding the First Amendment, and not making statements like this.
Mizzou student body VP Brenda Smith-Lezama spoke with MSNBC about the declared safe spaces and why students (and some faculty) were trying to keep reporters out of them. When questioned about these “teachable moments” — with the caveat that “the cameras are going to go away soon” — Smith-Lezama said “journalists… cannot approach these situations with hostility and anger as it only escalates the situation.”
…the real meat of the segment came when Smith-Lezama was asked about similar cases of racial discrimination and disparity at other universities. Complaints against these student-led protests noted that colleges were seemingly becoming “places of censor and prohibition.” Mizzou’s student body VP was blatantly honest in her response.
“I personally am tired of hearing that First Amendment rights protect students when they are creating a hostile and unsafe learning environment for myself and for other students here. I think that it’s important for us to create that distinction and create a space where we can all learn from one another and start to create a place of healing rather than a place where we are experiencing a lot of hate like we have in the past.”
Smith-Lezama doesn’t say so directly, but one of the immediate implications of her response is that the First Amendment rights she’s tired of hearing about are responsible for “creating a hostile and unsafe learning environment.”
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