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Colleges Have Never Cared About Free Speech

Published

1 year ago

April 29, 2024

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After hundreds of years of repeated attempts, colleges in the United States are once again trying to communicate that they are not particularly crazy about their students protesting on their campuses.

They thought they had made this clear when the National Guard killed four students for protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State in 1970. Or when police officers killed two students for protesting racial inequality at Jackson State in Mississippi in the same year. Or even 40 years later when campus police at the University of California – Davis were pepper-spraying students in the face for protesting economic inequality.

Universities suppressing their students’ speech has such a long history in America that examples of it exist from before the states were even united: Ten years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, students at Harvard University protested the quality of the food they were being served on campus, and subsequently half of their student body was suspended as a result.

And these are just the high-profile episodes that managed to make their way into the news. But colleges are silencing their students way more often than you hear about, and for any reason they see fit to.

I know this because it happened to meeeeeeeeeeeee.

MUSIC CUE: “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind, doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doo

The year was [redacted]. It was the Spring semester of my single year at Webster University. I was super thin and handsome and cool (not important to the story, I just want it in the public record). The school was gearing up for its annual student film and video awards called the Webbies, and I had signed up to help make the showcase feature film that accompanied the ceremony every year.

The film was always a crude, over-the-top comedy, such as the kind you would expect a bunch of college kids to make, with the plot generally revolving around a group of students saving the Webbies from a series of unrealistic movie-themed disasters, often parodying features like Back to the Future or Warriors.

The year I got involved the movie was Lethal Webbies, a parody of 1980s cop films like Lethal Weapon and Die Hard. The story was about two idiot campus safety patrol officers who didn’t see eye to eye, but eventually set aside their differences to stop an evil Austrian exchange student’s plot to blow up the Webbies, a plot he had devised after his art film Untitled Soul received zero nominations.

Somehow, during our months-long production, rumors started spreading that the movie we were making was highly problematic. One especially rampant rumor was that the film was unkind to Austrians. These rumors took on a life of their own and were pervasive enough that they made their way to the school’s top administrators who decided they needed to step in. The students involved in the project set up a private viewing of the film to try to put the school at ease.

The administrators remained dead silent for the entirety of the screening, crossing their arms in disapproval and clucking their tongues at jokes they didn’t like (which was all of them). When the credits graciously rolled an hour plus later, they proceeded to tell us that they thought the movie sucked and wasn’t very funny. They also decided to ban the film, for reasons unrelated to their unsolicited critiques.

They had decided that Lethal Webbies was culturally insensitive to Austrians, specifically the evil exchange student, a character who was basically just Hans Gruber from Die Hard. They told us the Webbies ceremony was to be live-streamed at their Vienna campus that year (which never happened), and this movie would not be a good look for their global exchange program. They didn’t care about the other parts of the movie that actually were incredibly offensive (at one point my diabetic character threatens to end his own life by eating a candy bar) or overtly crude (at another point my character punches a corpse); they only cared about the thing that was closest to the inaccurate rumors they had originally heard about, so they fully doused their students’ hard work and artistic expression as a mere precaution.

Of course this only ended up being really good for Lethal Webbies. Word quickly spread that our movie was too controversial to be screened at the ceremony it had been created for, and this resulted in even more people seeing it at two jam-packed screenings in the Winifred Moore auditorium to a raucous and lively crowd, who loved it. In trying to censor the movie, the school had only raised its profile and ensured more people saw the finished product.

Colleges sell students on the idea that their institutions exist solely to provide them with the tools to think critically and freely express themselves, but in reality schools are just businesses whose primary goal is to make as much money as they can get away with (and they get away with a lot), and if a student’s free expression sparks the loss of even a single solitary cent from donors or enrollment or divestments or whatever, the college is going to shut their ass down. They might even call the cops on them. And as anyone with a worthless mass communications degree can tell you, if the fuzz shows up, that only helps amplify the message the school is trying to censor.The RFT welcomes concise essays on topics of local interest. Email [email protected] if you’ve got something to say

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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