What Students Know About Free Speech Zones

It wasn't until the fall semester of 2016 (otherwise known as now), that I truly understood what the First Amendment entails. I understood the importance of the First Amendment of course but it wasn't until my Mass Communication Law class taught by Dr. Steve Collins that I appreciated it.

We are students, we go to school to expand our minds, to gather new information, to theorize about why things are the way that they are, to share ideas. I emphasize share ideas because at this point and time big universities such as the University of Central Florida are broadly restricting the community's ability to speak their minds and spread their ideas with the students and staff.

We see them all the time, the church groups that protest on the Free Speech Zones, we write them off as nuisances but what we don't realize is the work that they have to do to get to stand there on any given day. They don't just get to decide that they feel like spreading the word of God and set up shop two hours later, they have to write to UCF at least 24 hours in advance, they have to review the extensive list of regulations that the school has laid out and be sure not to intrude on any of the rules for they may risk a run in with the police.

It is the Free Speech Zones themselves that are truly the problem. As of right now, UCF has only six designated areas in which people are free to say anything they would like (with the exception of inciting violence of any kind for that type of speech is not protected by the First Amendment). Six small areas on a campus that is 1,415 acres. I don't know about you, but to me that seems like the school did as little as they had to in order to be able to say that they promote the freedom of speech.

Now, I am not proposing that we allow demonstrators wherever their hearts desire (i.e. classrooms, sidewalks), all that I ask is that UCF expand their Free Speech Zones to any grassy area, their are plenty at UCF and that way demonstrators are free to set up wherever they feel they would reach the audience that they intended to reach.

Now, I know what you're thinking "I don't want some stranger harassing me about converting to his religion on my way to class," I feel you on that, I really do. The second that you feel as though demonstrators are harassing you, just walk away, if they must stay on a grassy patch they are not able to follow you. Will it be annoying? Maybe, but do the freedoms provided by the Constitution outweigh your desire to not feel uncomfortable? Absolutely, if you don't agree please review the 1969 Supreme Court case of Tinker v. Des Moines.

I now admire the people that stand out on the Free Speech Zones because they are exercising their right to peaceably assemble and they are speaking what they believe to be true despite knowing that they will be harassed and ridiculed by students that have nothing better to do with their day.