The US First Amendment Center recently flagged up research showing the dominance of speech codes on US campuses. An analysis of more than 330 colleges across the USA found that some 68 per cent have policies that ‘clearly and substantially restrict freedom of speech’.
This included The University of California at Los Angeles’ harassment policy, which states that ‘Sexual harassment may include: derogatory remarks about one’s clothing, body, or sexual activities based on gender; disparaging remarks, jokes, and teasing based on gender; verbal harassment or abuse; subtle pressure for sexual activity; unwelcome touching, patting, or pinching; demanding sexual favors’. It’s a wonder that students there have a social life at all.
The organisation that carried out the research, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, gave colleges a red, amber or green grading, based on whether they infringed First Amendment principles. Yet the UK has no such Amendment principles. When it comes to taking up similar speech codes here we have to start from scratch, exploring how free thought and expression are essential to a vibrant social life, and the development of individual ideas and character. After all, how are students to grow up into sensitive and responsible adults, if every aspect of their life – down to comments about clothing - is governed by codes? By simply banning any speech deemed unpleasant or bad, codes stifle the development of moral responsibility.
Josie Appleton
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