Community College Admins Fabricated a Reason To Target These Students' Anti-Communist Posters

[Kamaji]

Community College Admins Fabricated a Reason To Target These Students' Anti-Communist Posters

That's illegal, says a new suit filed on Thursday.

EMMA CAMP
8.12.2022

On Thursday, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) filed a lawsuit against California's Clovis Community College, alleging that administrators plotted behind closed doors to take down a conservative student organization's flyers. Emails obtained by FIRE after a public records request reveal that college administrators coordinated how to censor the group, "fabricat[ing] a pretext" for their actions, according to FIRE's lawsuit.

In November 2021, Clovis' chapter of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) received permission to place flyers around campus. The posters were critical of "leftism," listing the death tolls of various Communist regimes and the oppressive conditions for people living in them. However, the flyers quickly attracted complaints, with emails obtained by FIRE revealing administrators' discussions of the posters on November 8.

"Wanted to give you a heads up that there could be some problems with these posters," wrote Leslie King, a Clovis Community College administrator. "Patrick says that it's a gray area because of free speech…I've talked to several people that are very uncomfortable with it, and one person said they would file a harassment claim if these posters don't come down." Patrick Stumpf, another administrator, wrote that "we [sic] gladly take down" the posters.

Just a few days later, on November 12, Clovis President Lori Bennett ordered the posters to be taken down. "If you need a reason, you can let them know that [we] agreed they aren't club announcements," Bennett wrote to Clovis Dean of Student Services Gurdeep Sihota-Hebert. Sihota-Hebert also asked Bennett to keep the justification for taking down the posters secret: "Between you and me. Please don't share this email. Posters need to come down per administration."

"Clovis Community College maintains a 'Poster/Flyer Instructions' Policy (the Flyer Policy) that unconstitutionally prohibits flyers 'with inappropriate or offense [sic] language or themes,'" wrote FIRE in its lawsuit against the college. "Contrary to President Bennett's pretextual reason for removing Plaintiffs' flyers, neither the Flyer Policy nor Clovis's standard practice requires that student flyers must announce club meetings or events."

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Source:  https://reason.com/2022/08/12/community-college-admins-fabricated-a-reason-to-target-these-students-anti-communist-posters/

[Kamaji]

In California, of course.

[DefiantMassRINO]

Community College?

At the Community College I attended, it was a commuter school (no dorms), and most students were too busy working and studying to be distracted by such nonsense.

Man, as lefty as Massachusetts is, California takes loony liberalism to a whole new level.