Senator Yee's speech
Summary of CA Senator Leland Yee’s comments at Protecting Student Press Freedom conference at Kent State University, Nov. 21:
Administrators' definition of academic standards includes censorship and restraint so they can control what the school does and looks like.
They censor/control, they say, to protect the integrity of the school. In testifying against the CA legislation, educators said they had a right to ensure a certain standard of instruction and behavior.
This environment to curtail stands as a chilling effect on democracy...and that is the horror of the opposition to student free expression.
In this atmosphere of adults-know-best really negative modeling exists so that students will grow up to be models of restraint and censorship. They will model what they see because we learn by modeling: Students are seeing how to not respect the First Amendment or democracy where review and censorship exist.
As a child psychologist, Yee says children learn by modeling: and that is the negative message of this opposition.
The importance of CA legislation is it protects the important rights of students to challenge authority and to protect them against retaliation.
Administrators often would go after advisers instead of the students, so legislation protects advisers, teachers.
The 60s Anti-war movement showed importance of First Amendment and democracy; being able to say and do what you want without government control.
That is the essence of democracy: free individuals who could question government and society.