Temple 1

Tori Temple
03/16/16
Comp 1312
Mr. Beavers
Toulmin method
Lets Argue Speech
In my American national government class we were having a discussion on politics. More
specifically who we thought would be a better president. While one student thought that Marco
Rubio would be a better fit for the president, the teacher shut the student out and simply said that
in class we will only discuss about democrats for president because republicans are no good.
This shows the teacher has impeached on their freedom of speech. Freedom of speech should not
be taken for granted on campus because in other parts of our world people are willing to die for
are right to speech. Freedom of speech needs a more aggressive role on college campus.
Freedom of speech has many different views in college campuses today. Degrading, stifle, and
demeaning actions are some reasons why the role of freedom of speech needs to have a more
aggressive role.
The definition of a hate speech is a speech that attacks, threatens, or insults a person or
group on the basis of national origin, ethnicity, color, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual
orientation, or disability (dictionary). In hate speeches Degrading words are often used. A
good example of a hate speech is shown in the article Free Speech on Campus, it explains at
the university of Maryland, fraternity member wrote an email saying Fellow fraternity brothers
seeking sex with young women to f**consent and instructed them not to invite n**gals or
curry monsters or slanted eyed chicks, unless theyre hot (Glazer par, 2). This hate speech is

Temple 2

degrading women saying that hot girls are worth taking advantage of. The president of the
university basically found that the email is protected under the first amendment, and that there
was nothing he could do.
Freedom of speech is where you have the right to say and express yourself. You should
not have to feel restrained, or feel that it can be taken away from you. At Sam Houston State,
for example, a professor wielded a box cutter against a free speech wall.because someone
had written a political statement against President Obama. The police later told the students that
they were responsible for provoking the professors violence, so they had to censor the wall or
take it down (Keating, par.1). These students were stifled, which means to have restrained or
action taken away from. The students were expressing how they felt about president Obama,
which should be protected under the first amendment. But because the professor was offended
they had this right taken away from them.
I feel that school involvement is very important. Some people think it is annoying that the
school can tell them where to speak in speech zones. You should not have to feel confined to
stand up for what you believe in, unlike Anthony Kern a representative said when he was
younger working with a church group that wanted to hand out material at Glendale Community
College during July 4th activities. Kern said there was no problem for the first few years. All of
a sudden, they came up with this free speech zone which was way away from the people, which
to him defeated the whole purpose (Fischer, par. 5).The speech zones are demeaning in that you
lose your dignity and respect. The college making Kern and his crew move to a Speech zone
shows how little curtesy they have for clubs and social groups. The college is just shoving them
in a corner like they dont even exists on campus.

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Many people and students take freedom of speech to a whole different level. From a
personal point of view, being in college I experienced some people coming to my campus to tell
us students how we are evil. These people were so caught up in the belief of how our generation
is horrible, evil, and disrespectful that they decided to leave out what would be good about us. I
for one did not applicate them coming here to tell me that I was a bad person. They were saying
so many mean things about us students that they had to be protected by our campus policy. They
caused a scene and almost a riot. Although the constitution states in the first amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press people will still tell you
college universities are unfair ("First Amendment"). Everyones intake on how the universities
freedom of speech policy has different meanings. Since this will be a forever ongoing topic I
think students and universities faculty should take everything about our constitution more
aggressively.

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Work Cited
Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2016.
Glazer, Sarah. Free Speech on Campus. CQ Researcher. CQ Press. 8 May. 2015. Web. 09 Feb.
2016
"First Amendment." LII / Legal Information Institute. Cornell University Law School, n.d. Web.
14 Apr. 2016.
Fischer, Howard. "Bill Would Ban College Free Speech Zones." Arizona Capital Times.

Capital

Media Service, n.d. Web. 09 Feb. 2016.

Keating. "Freedom of Speech on College Campuses - The Keating Center." The Keating Center.
Oklahoma Wesleyan University, 07 June 2015. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.