POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is from the Washington Post: A high school student was suspended for “disrespect” after he called his congressman’s office and told lawmakers — as he recalls it — to “get off their f‑‑‑— asses” and pass gun-control laws. Rep. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.) has defended his staff member for reporting 17-year-old Noah…
BY HANK REICHMAN Two recent U.S. appellate court rulings, from the U.S Courts of Appeal for the Ninth and Fourth Circuits, mark victories for the free speech rights of striking teachers and of students. In the Ninth Circuit case, Eagle Point Education Association/SOBC/OEA; Dave Carrell; Staci Boyer v. Jackson County School District No. 9, decided…
BY HANK REICHMAN Prominent among the cascade of remarkable events in the incredible year of 1968 were a series of student rebellions, the most prominent of which was the uprising at Columbia University in April and May, in which I participated and about which I will have more to post next month. But the first…
BY HANK REICHMAN Yesterday I had the privilege and pleasure of participating in a terrific panel discussion of “Academic Freedom in an Age of Political Polarization” at the Albert Shanker Institute in Washington, D.C. My fellow panelists were Sigal Ben-Porath, Professor of Education, Political Science and Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and author of…
BY HANK REICHMAN To hear more than a few right-wing politicians and pompous pundits tell it, the greatest problem in American higher education today is that free speech on campus is on life support, especially when it comes to the speech of prominent conservatives and especially at places like the University of.California at Berkeley, home…
BY HANK REICHMAN Today, after nine days on an “illegal” and “unauthorized” strike, West Virginia teachers won a powerful victory when Republican Governor Jim Justice signed legislation passed earlier in the day that will raise salaries of not only teachers but also all state employees by 5%, the largest single pay hike for public employees…
POSTED BY HANK REICHMAN The following is the text of an open letter to members of the U.S. Congress co-written by the March for Science and the American Psychological Association and signed by a growing number of scholarly organizations, including the AAUP. To add your signature go to https://www.marchforscience.com/gunviolence To: The Members of Congress Three…
BY HANK REICHMAN With high school students and their supporters across the country planning walkouts from class this spring to demand common sense gun control measures, it may be useful to look back on, commemorate, and learn from events that occurred 50 years ago this week. Among the many anniversaries from the remarkable year 1968,…
BY HANK REICHMAN I’ve mentioned before on this blog that, given the extraordinary events of 1968, this is a big year for 50th anniversaries. But today marks a notable 70th anniversary. On the morning of February 27, 1948, a plane traveling from Oakland to the Mexican border crashed in Los Gatos Canyon, California, about an…
BY HANK REICHMAN “We do not fear arrest.” So declared seventeen full or endowed professors at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in a letter to UNC Chancellor Carol Folt demanding the University take down Silent Sam, a Confederate monument that has been a focus of controversy on the campus since the Charlottesville events last…