The University of Michigan agreed in a legal settlement Monday to never again employ a Bias Response Team to investigate students for alleged “bullying” or “harassment” – a practice that chilled the free speech rights of conservative students on campus.
This landmark victory for free expression means the @UMich can no longer intentionally chill student speech while ignoring the guaranteed protections of the First Amendment. https://t.co/txbWn4bAnT #FreeSpeech! #1A
— Speech First (@Speech_First) October 30, 2019
The free speech group Speech First sued U-M in May 2018 on behalf of three unnamed students after university officials launched a Bias Response Team to combat alleged bullying and harassment that led to complaints from conservative students concerned about the loose definitions for misconduct.
Initially, the rules outlawed “bullying” and “harassing” behavior that “annoy[s] persistently,” creates an “unpleasant” situation or “frighten[s]” someone, as well as “unwanted negative attention perceived as intimidating, demeaning or bothersome to an individual,” The College Fix reports.
The BRT defined bias as any incident “that discriminates, stereotypes, excludes, harasses or harms anyone in our community based on their identity,” which was a problem for conservative students regularly mislabeled as racist for their perspective. – READ MORE