To: The Texas State House and The Texas State Senate
Don't punish students protesting neo-Nazis -- support the right to protest.
Texas lawmakers shouldn't silence students from protesting neo-Nazis or punish them for speaking up for their rights. The SB 18 conference committee must remove the anti-protest amendments from the final bill.
Why is this important?
Texas lawmakers have stoked a nationwide controversy with a new attack on students’ rights to protest racist extremism on their campus.
Over the past few years, far-right campus speakers like open neo-Nazi Richard Spencer have been met with massive student protests -- with some even succeeding in getting the invitations to speak rescinded.
But if this bill had been in place back then, many students who spoke out -- and their schools -- would be subjected to mandatory, harsh disciplinary sanctions. And, those penalties would apply even for protesting against dangerous, racist extremists like Richard Spencer.
This bill would also ban schools from taking positions on issues of public concern -- even issues like campus sexual assault, which directly affect their students.
College students should get to hear from diverse points of view -- but they also deserve every right to protest neo-Nazis on campus. This new policy is a direct attack on students’ rights to advocate for themselves -- and if you don't want it coming to your state, we need a NATIONWIDE outcry to stop it.
Americans from across the country have already spoken out against this attack on free speech, and successfully got SB 18 sent back for revision. I need your help to protect the right to protest -- join me in telling Texas lawmakers to kill these bad, anti-free speech proposals for good.
Over the past few years, far-right campus speakers like open neo-Nazi Richard Spencer have been met with massive student protests -- with some even succeeding in getting the invitations to speak rescinded.
But if this bill had been in place back then, many students who spoke out -- and their schools -- would be subjected to mandatory, harsh disciplinary sanctions. And, those penalties would apply even for protesting against dangerous, racist extremists like Richard Spencer.
This bill would also ban schools from taking positions on issues of public concern -- even issues like campus sexual assault, which directly affect their students.
College students should get to hear from diverse points of view -- but they also deserve every right to protest neo-Nazis on campus. This new policy is a direct attack on students’ rights to advocate for themselves -- and if you don't want it coming to your state, we need a NATIONWIDE outcry to stop it.
Americans from across the country have already spoken out against this attack on free speech, and successfully got SB 18 sent back for revision. I need your help to protect the right to protest -- join me in telling Texas lawmakers to kill these bad, anti-free speech proposals for good.