For those who think that words are just words - what is your take on bullying? O.K. as long as it's limited to verbal bullying?
I pretty much agree with these guys:
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/combat-bullying-but-protect-religious-and-political-speech
" But how can public schools balance the need for school safety with a commitment to freedom of expression?
To help answer this question, a coalition of 17 education and religious groups released guidelines on May 22 designed to help public schools combat bullying and harassment while simultaneously upholding the rights of students to free speech and free exercise of religion under the First Amendment..."..." Following current law, the guidelines draw a distinction between student speech that expresses an idea, including religious and political views, and student speech that is intended to cause (or school officials demonstrate is likely to cause) emotional or psychological harm to the listener. The former is, in most circumstances, protected speech, but the latter may and should be stopped...."
.."But as the guide explains, student speech conveying religious or political ideas is protected by the First Amendment and therefore “may not be the basis for disciplinary action absent a showing of substantial disruption (or likely disruption) or a violation of another student’s legal rights.”
Rather than shutting down student speech about politics and religion, schools should help students master the skills of civil discourse, including the skill of listening to speech with which one profoundly disagrees.
Censorship doesn’t make schools safer. On the contrary, suppressing speech only deepens divisions and fuels intolerance.
To prepare students for citizenship in a pluralistic democracy that values the First Amendment, schools must be places that are both safe and free.
A safe school is free of bullying and harassment — and a free school is safe for student speech, including speech about issues that divide us."
The rest of article is at the site.
