Like it or not, drawing penises is a time-honored college tradition just like pulling all-nighters and playing drinking games. But when a University of Delaware student drew a penis on a giant beach ball in a free expression exercise, he was told by campus police that it violated the school’s sexual misconduct policies.
It’s certainly a way to suppress free expression, which has become a college tradition in itself.
Despite the protestations of the penis police, a public university like University of Delaware must abide by the First Amendment, which has very few exceptions, images of penises not among them. Being offended by speech — a common premise underlying rules on micro-aggressions, cultural appropriation, and trigger warnings — is not justification for censoring it.
In the video below, Associate Director of Litigation at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) Catherin Sevcenko highlights FIRE’s Stand Up For Speech litigation project, which supports any student or faculty member who wants to fight back against censorship on campus.
Let’s hope this University of Delaware student reaches out to FIRE for help. Dumb drawings deserve protection in order to maintain the vital principle of free speech.