Showerthought: My old college's 'heckler's veto' policy is just a way to ban people quietly

My school, a state university in Ohio, had a rule that if a speaker's event was likely to cause 'substantial disruption,' the administration could cancel it. They used that to stop a conservative writer from coming in 2022 after some student groups protested. I used to think that was just being safe, but a professor told me point blank, 'That's not safety, that's letting the loudest voices decide who gets heard.' It changed my whole view. Now I see those 'disruption' clauses as a backdoor to avoid free speech fights. Has your school used a rule like this to cancel a talk?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancy_davis5d ago

Heard a similar story from a friend at a community college. They canceled a talk on local politics because a few people complained online. Makes you wonder who gets to decide what a "disruption" even is.

jaden695d ago

But what if the online complaints were actually threats? I saw a case where a speaker got doxxed and harassed after a planned event was posted. The school didn't cancel over opinions, they canceled because someone posted the speaker's home address. Sometimes "disruption" means real safety concerns, not just people being upset.