LSU Prof. Rejects 1A, Vows To Keep List of 'Hate Speech' Violators So She Can Cut Them from Class
Leftists grifters posing as educators have preyed on students on American campuses for decades.
But in today’s politically charged environment, which is largely hostile to conservatives or other free thinkers, they rarely make an attempt to hide their political motives.
Even students in deep-red Louisiana aren’t safe from the radical agenda.
After the apparent death of the counterculture movement in the 1960s, the hippies disbanded. Some of them went on to live productive lives, while others wandered the earth bumming cigarettes.
But a great many of them became teachers, and after almost five decades of infecting the education system with radical ideologies, now they’ve fostered an environment in which far-left teachers feel safe to openly challenge American values and rights, and to indoctrinate and intimidate those who don’t agree with them.
That is especially true on the campuses of our universities, where the far-left takeover is glaring, even at Louisiana State University.
The Washington Free Beacon and other outlets reported that LSU assistant professor of biological sciences Alyssa Johnson said she is keeping a list of students who she deems guilty of “hate speech” so she can drop them from her classes.
Johnson apparently vowed to create the list after video of an incoming white freshman using an anti-black racial slur shocked the campus.
The university initially responded to the video by saying it condemns “hate and bigotry in any form, including racially incendiary remarks.”
“As a state university, however, we are subject to constitutional limitation on our ability to take action in response to free speech,” LSU added in a tweet.
This was the correct response — bigoted language might display a person’s ignorance or prejudice, but it is nonetheless protected language.
Indeed, if all speech was nice speech that everyone agreed with, we wouldn’t need a First Amendment.
But the school’s stance on the issue didn’t please Johnson.
She posted a tweet vowing to hold students accountable for their views, even if the school did not.
In the since-deleted post, the teacher said she would keep a list of names of other students who use “hate speech” and kick them out of her classes.
“If @LSU won’t take action, we as professors can. Keeping a list of names and if I see them enrolled in my course, I will drop them. It’s not just free speech, it’s hate speech and it’s a threat to student safety. #safespace #BlackLivesMatter,” Johnson tweeted Sunday.
Johnson’s vow was praised by the campus group LSU Against Racism.
“Any language that targets others in a manner so vicious, like a slur, should not ever be protected at the university because it alienates a huge portion of the student body and puts them in an unsafe environment,” a spokesperson for the group told the Free Beacon.
Meanwhile, the school has since said it is further investigating the matter involving the incoming freshman:
Today, we met with Black student leaders to pledge again that LSU will investigate and take action against all acts of racism, hostility, harassment and intimidation by students under our code of conduct. We will hold violators accountable. (2/4)
— LSU (@LSU) June 9, 2020
To accomplish a meaningful change plan, we will meet with these student leaders tomorrow, Wednesday and as many days as it takes to ensure LSU is a safe, welcoming and inclusive university. (4/4)
— LSU (@LSU) June 9, 2020
But many people are questioning if it is appropriate for Johnson to brand herself as a speech monitor.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education told the Free Beacon that teachers such as Johnson have no power to decide who they can and cannot instruct at public universities.
“Faculty members at public institutions properly possess the academic freedom to guide discussions within their classrooms,” group spokeswoman Katlyn Patton told the Free Beacon.
“But, they cannot refuse to teach students simply because they disagree with their extramural speech or views,” Patton added.
While few people would defend a student’s use of a racial slur, it is troubling when a teacher such as Johnson vows to begin making lists which could target other students for using what she might subjectively view as “hate speech.”
“Hate speech” is a nebulous concept that no single individual has the authority to identify.
What if Johnson suddenly deems calling the country “great” as hateful?
What if other teachers deem praise of American exceptionalism as being vile.
At a state-run university such as LSU, the First Amendment must always take precedence over the whims of authoritarian faculty members.
Some teachers are great people with a passion for allowing students to learn and take in new perspectives and ideas.
Sadly, others get into the profession to push their radical views on young people.
Allowing teachers to begin deciding which speech is acceptable is a slippery slope, and Johnson’s safe space rhetoric does not supersede her students’ rights to exchange ideas, as they signed up for an education, and not an indoctrination.
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