There’s a proper way to exercise your speech rights at American University: get a permit from the administration.
Students protesting tuition hikes outside a budget meeting were told to leave – and threatened with handcuffs – “because they had not properly organized the protest through Student Activities,” The Eagle reported:
A Public Safety officer held a pair of handcuffs while approximately 40 student protesters lined the hallway in Leonard Hall outside the room where administrators were meeting, according to [student protester Katie] Kirchner.
“The most alarming part of this situation is how escalatory Public Safety acted when students were peaceful and respectful,” Kirchner said in an email. “I don’t know what prompted them to take out the handcuffs; students were simply lining one side of a hallway silently.”
Kirchner said there’s no way to “book a hallway” for a protest through the school’s permitting system.
The school’s guidelines on free expression are ambiguous on students’ rights, guaranteeing their right to dissent “so long as the orderly processes of the University are not deliberately obstructed,” The Eagle said.
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