Victory for Free Speech on Campus: Mississippi College Reverses Punishment of Student for Swearing Outside of Class – FIRE
Victory for Free Speech on Campus: Mississippi College Reverses Punishment of Student for Swearing Outside of Class
July 28, 2010
JACKSON, Miss., July 28, 2010—Isaac Rosenbloom is again able to pursue advanced training as a paramedic at Hinds Community College (HCC) now that the school has reversed its punishment against him for swearing a single time outside of class. Rosenbloom, who supports his wife and two young children as an emergency medical technician, was barred from one of his classes and denied financial aid after a professor initiated a verbal confrontation with him over his language. After HCC found Rosenbloom guilty of “flagrant disrespect,” he turned to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help.
“HCC almost ruined a man’s life because he cursed after class in the vicinity of a college professor,” said Will Creeley, FIRE’s Director of Legal and Public Advocacy. “But Hinds Community College isn’t some Victorian finishing school—it’s a public institution bound by the First Amendment.”
Rosenbloom’s ordeal began on March 29, 2010, when professor Barbara Pyle and a few students stayed after class to discuss the students’ grades. At one point, in the doorway of the room, Rosenbloom said to a fellow student that his grade was “going to f— up my entire GPA.”
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