Be Careful Trying To Limit Free Speech

Patch
In a Letter to the Editor, resident says a student's freedom of speech does not stop at school house door.

A Letter to the Editor from William C. Brown:

Racial slurs or anti-Semitic words painted on a wall or etched on a desk is vandalism. Racial slurs, anti-Semitic or calling someone a "fag" no matter how offensive or repulsive it may be is FREEDOM of SPEECH guaranteed by the FIRST AMENDMENT of the CONSTITUTION of the UNITED STATES.

In 1969 the United States Supreme Court ruled in Tinker v. De Moines that a student's FREEDOM of SPEECH does not stop at the SCHOOL house door. At the Oct. 30, 2018 Reading Select Board meeting, Select Board member Alvarado in a statement stated that she was, and I quote,"pissed" in explaining to her child what the hurtful word "fag" meant.

According to my 1983 Webster's dictionary the word "pissed" is considered vulgar. Ms Alvarado was within her FIRST AMENDMENT right to use that word, just as the child had the FIRST AMENDMENT right to use the word "fag" in front of her child.

Millions of men and women have served and died for this country to defend the FIRST AMENDMENT and your right of free speech. When you gather to protest the use of racial slurs, anti-Semitic words, or even "fags," remember when you suppress someone else's freedom of speech you suppress your own right to that same free speech.

William C. Brown, Martin Road