National Free Speech News & Commentary

J. David Goodman
New York Times

Excerpt: Cheryl Hensley, a librarian in Houston, was excited for the start of school. A veteran of four decades in the city’s public school system, she had stocked her library at Lockhart Elementary, a mostly Black school, with $40,000 in new books, and won a statewide award for her work. Then, late last month, Ms. Hensley, 62, was told she was no longer needed: The school’s library would be one of dozens turned into multipurpose computer rooms and used, in part, for discipline.

Stephen McGuire, American Council of Trustees and Alumni
Wall Street Journal

Excerpt: When the Supreme Court struck down the University of North Carolina’s affirmative-action program in June, the trustees of its flagship Chapel Hill campus were quick to respond. Embracing the letter and spirit of the law, the board passed a nondiscrimination resolution in July that applies not only to admissions but to hiring and contracting as well. The resolution goes beyond race to prohibit discrimination based on “race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, genetic information, or veteran status.” . . .
Meanwhile, Harvard, UNC’s co-litigant, has looked for ways to keep discriminating, and so have many other institutions. They focus on one sentence of the court’s ruling: “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it thr
ough discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”

Alexander Schmidt
Globe Gazette

Excerpt: Books are being pulled from the shelves of Mason City Schools' libraries to comply with newly enacted state legislation Gov. Kim Reynolds says will protect children from damaging and obscene material.

At its Monday, July 17 meeting, the Mason City School Board conducted the first reading of a series of policy changes that would bring the district into compliance with newly enacted statewide legislation, most notably regarding the review of instructional materials and the district's policy towards students' gender identity. The policy changes, as recommended by the Iowa Association of School Boards, were made as a result of a sweeping educational reform bill championed by legislative Republicans and signed by Reynolds in May.

Oliver Milman
The Guardian

Excerpt: Videos that compare climate activists to Nazis, portray solar and wind energy as environmentally ruinous and claim that current global heating is part of natural long-term cycles will be made available to young schoolchildren in Florida, after the state approved their use in its public school curriculum.

Alex Morey
Persuasion

Excerpt: Joy Alonzo wants to stop fentanyl overdose deaths. As a professor at the Texas A&M College of Pharmacy and co-chair of the school’s Opioid Task Force, she advocates for her views inside and outside of class.

Doing so in one of her classes earlier this semester almost cost Alonzo her job.

Jill Filipovic
The Atlantic

Excerpt: In 2008, when I was a writer for the blog Feministe, commenters began requesting warnings at the top of posts discussing distressing topics, most commonly sexual assault. Violence is, unfortunately and inevitably, central to feminist writing. Rape, domestic violence, racist violence, misogyny—these events indelibly shape women’s lives, whether we experience them directly or adjust our behavior in fear of them.

We thought we were making the world just a little bit better. It didn’t occur to me until much later that we might have been part of the problem.