Posted on 01/15/2010 7:33:13 PM PST by greatdefender
FORT WORTH — When Tarrant County College denied a student the right to stage an empty holster protest in April 2008 at the South Campus, officials feared someone would use the event to bring a weapon on campus.
"There was certainly the expectation that someone was going to show up with a gun in a holster," TCC interim Chancellor Erma Johnson Hadley said under cross examination during a trial in federal court Thursday.
School officials had the concern even though they had no evidence that anyone would, and U.S. District Court Judge Terry Means told her — when she couldn’t provide any proof of why she thought someone planned to do so — that free speech cannot be limited on the basis of an "undifferentiated fear."
"I can’t see any tangible basis for this fear," Means said.
Hadley’s testimony came in the third and final day of a trial concerning TCC’s free-speech restrictions and how administrators changed the student handbook after the lawsuit was filed and whether those changes were made properly.
The American Civil Liberties Union is asking that some sections of the handbook about protest policies be found unconstitutional and is seeking a permanent injunction against TCC prohibiting it from enforcing those policies.
TCC denied empty-holster protests in April 2008 and April 2009, stating that they believed it could cause a disturbance on campus put students and the faculty at risk.
TCC again denied a request to wear the holsters in November, but students Clayton Smith and John Schwertz Jr. then filed suit with the assistance of the ACLU.
Means issued a temporary restraining order allowing the protests to be held in public areas last November. The protests on the Northeast Campus in Hurst and South Campus in Fort Worth went off without incident.
(Excerpt) Read more at star-telegram.com ...
Rocket scientist!
Most college professors and administrators are kooks.
ACLU...interesting.
Somebody in the local ACLU understands the meaning of the First Amendment, the right to assemble peacefully.
Good for them.
A decade or so ago I had some business dealings with TCC. Some of the stupidest faculty and administrators I’d ever met. Not to say there’s any connection......
Someone is just as likely to show up with a gun in an empty pocket event. Are they afraid of those too?
:)
Anyway, after the match, I put my guns in the trunk, but I've still got my (empty) holster on my belt. I needed to some gas for my car to make it home, so I stopped at a convenience store. While I was filling up, two cop cars pull in, flash their lights at me, and the officers jump out of the cars, guns drawn, and ordered me to put my hands in the air, and to get on my knees. It turns out that the people in the store happened to see my holster while I was out at the pumps (I never entered the store), and called the police, telling them that an armed robber was there. Anyway, it only took about 10 minutes to straighten things out, but it was an ugly situation, and reminded me that I don't like being held at gunpoint.
Mark
I had that expectation too, but then I looked up that obscure word in the phrase "empty-holster protest".
emp⋅ty /ˈɛmpti/ [emp-tee] adjective, -ti⋅er, -ti⋅est, verb, -tied, -ty⋅ing, noun, plural -ties.
1. containing nothing; having none of the usual or appropriate contents: an empty bottle.
The distinguished scholar, Chancellor Erma, could have allayed her fears with a little research.
Another way of saying "liberal hand wringing".
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