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Freedom of Speech: Where Is the Line Drawn?

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Where is the Line Drawn?

Freedom of speech:

The right, guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, to express beliefs and ideas without unwarranted government restriction.

The issues of language and whether or not there should be regulation of students’ First Amendment rights can be a summarized in one word for me.

Bizarre.

College campuses should not be able to put restrictions on students’ right to free expression. Contrary to popular belief that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” I understand that words do hurt; however, it is impossible to regulate language “because we don’t really know how to classify any kind of speech, which we would have to do before we could safely legislate against it”(314).

You cannot prescribe a single remedy for the millions of different people on campus. How one person reacts to a word is completely different than how another person would. This is why our First Amendment rights cannot be restricted because there are too many variables attached to it.

A UCLA student, Alexandra Wallace, posted a video on YouTube in which she complains about Asian students’ behavior. Wallace's three-minute video had triggered a national discussion about racial stereotyping and what authority, if any, colleges have over students' speech and opinions.

When you are given the opportunity to express free speech, you have to act responsibly. Just like if you are given a license, you have to drive responsibly. If a driver decides to pass a red light, he is faced with the consequences of his actions. With that being said, Wallace posted the video and it was part of her First Amendment rights to express free speech; however, she did this at her own risk. She received death threats and was ostracized, which eventually led to her withdrawal from UCLA.

Are the death threats really any

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