stupid college kids

[gsh]

I find myself conflicted over the two University of Oklahoma students who got expelled. Yes, they said some awful things, but being expelled from a state school seems like a potential violation of their first amendment rights. I may not agree with what they say, etc. Beside, racists are some of the people most in need of learning.

Comments

[reedrover]

Interesting perspective.
I'm more concerned with the trend of using social condemnation as the basis for legal action.

[gsh]

Do you have an example? I'm not sure what you mean.

[tamnonlinear]

I'd assume that the folks most in need of access to higher education are people from historically oppressed and under-represented social groups, not a bunch of white boys who never learned that they don't have a great out of consequences free card from the constitution. The school is not obligated to provide them with a platform, nor to tolerate the presence of hate speech that makes the school less welcoming for minority students. I don't feel any sense of conflict over this whatsoever.

[whitebird]

Yup, this is the way it is. People do, in fact, have free speech, as these students proved. People are not invulnerable from the negative things that happen to them because of how they choose to express themselves.

[tamnonlinear]

And I'm going to worry about whether or not the poor little racists get a second chance sometime significantly after everyone else gets a decent first one.

[whitebird]

I'm disinclined to care if jackasses get a second chance, no matter when it might be.

[aelf]

I would assume the school has a policy to allow expelled students to petition for readmission at some later date, and upon proving that the reasons for the expulsion are no longer at issue. I am fine with a school expelling students who create a hostile environment for other students. It may be what they need to realize how horrible what they did was.