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College FIREShould Be Scared to Celebrate Halloween

If you鈥檙e a college student gearing up for Halloween tomorrow, we hope you鈥檙e scared. Not of the usual frightful fare鈥, , 鈥攂ut of the fact that your costume could get you in serious trouble.

If this warning sounds freakishly familiar, it is.

Over the years, FIREhas amassed a veritable witches鈥 brew of horror stories in which colleges and universities demand that students refrain from wearing 鈥渙ffensive鈥 costumes.

Public institutions violate the First Amendment鈥檚 guarantee of free expression when they do so. Courts have held that offensive鈥攅ven racist鈥攃ostumes and party themes are expressive conduct protected by the Constitution. (See , 993 F.2d 386 (4th Cir. 1993), which held a university could not punish a fraternity for an 鈥渦gly woman鈥 contest that the university said created a 鈥渉ostile learning environment.鈥) Private colleges, while not beholden to the First Amendment, often breach their own promises to support free speech on campus.

As we鈥檝e said before, universities are certainly within their rights to ask students to carefully consider costume choices, but threatening students with punishment goes too far. However, like some kind of recurring nightmare, these scare tactics materialize time and again.

Earlier this month, Wesleyan University administrators peppered campus with .鈥 got its hands on one.

The poster purports to 鈥渆ncourage鈥 students to care for one another by asking whether their costumes 鈥渕ock cultural or religious symbols such as dreadlocks, headdresses, afros, bindis, etc.,鈥 鈥渁ttempt to represent an entire culture or ethnicity,鈥 or 鈥渢rivialize human suffering, oppression, and marginalization such as portraying a person who is homeless, imprisoned, a person with disabilities, or a person with mental illness.鈥

Suggesting students respect each other may not seem sinister. But 果冻传媒app官方鈥檚 experience demonstrates these friendly reminders are anything but.

Wesleyan is a private university not bound by the First Amendment, but it does students the right to 鈥淸f]reedom of assembly, speech, [and] belief.鈥 However, the university鈥檚 other policies could prompt punishment for protected expressive conduct. For example, Wesleyan has a troublingly vague ban on 鈥渄iscriminatory harassment,鈥 prohibiting even 鈥unintentional forms of harassment鈥 (emphasis added). Wesleyan also grants students 鈥渢he right to be protected against actions that may be harmful to [their] emotional stability.鈥

In other words, despite the flyer鈥檚 friendly tone, unintentionally hurting someone鈥檚 feelings with a Halloween costume could actually constitute a punishable offense at Wesleyan.

And Wesleyan is by no means alone. reports the poster鈥檚 wording鈥攁s evidenced by a disclaimer at the bottom鈥攚as 鈥渋nspired by the work of .鈥 Their poster, in turn, was informed by similar admonishment to students a few years back. (Northwestern, according to its handbook, is a place 鈥,鈥 though FIRE knows better than to take their word for it.)

Now, you don鈥檛 have to dust the cobwebs off piles of student handbooks to imagine ways that speech codes might, someday, be abused to stifle speech on campus. We鈥檝e got plenty of hair-raising examples from years past. It鈥檚 kind of like the neighborhood kid who won鈥檛 just 鈥淭AKE ONE鈥 from that unattended candy bowl on your porch. Someone always crosses the line.

This year, the award goes to the jack-o-lanterns at Rhodes College who, earlier this week, explicitly threatened disciplinary action for students daring to choose the wrong outfit tomorrow:

As you can see, offensive costumes 鈥渨ill not be tolerated.鈥

But that begs the question: What if students did use these offensiveness checklists to scrutinize their costumes? Would they be in the clear?

That answer is a terrifying and frustrating 鈥淣o.鈥

There is no objective standard for what is 鈥渙ffensive.鈥 Thus, students can never know with certainty what might subjectively offend another member of the campus community. Under this rationale, even the most innocuous costumes could offend a hyper-sensitive student: Witches are 鈥渁geist and sexist,鈥 ghosts 鈥渕ock the dead,鈥 jailbird costumes 鈥渢rivialize the traumatic experience鈥 of students with a parent or relative in prison. My husband (don鈥檛 tell him I told you this) had a bad pony ride incident when he was three and still actively avoids petting zoos. If he were a Wesleyan student, he might have a legitimate claim against someone in a horse outfit for undermining his 鈥渆motional stability.鈥

The consequences of this 鈥offendedness sweepstakes鈥濃攚here students claim the right to censor any expression they subjectively dislike鈥攚as on display earlier this semester as students at UCLA 鈥渄emanded a response鈥 from the administration to a 鈥淜anye Western鈥 theme party. Caving to student demands, UCLA a for hosting the party before even completing an investigation into allegations that some attendees wore blackface鈥攁n investigation that turned up . Rather, the photos that created the uproar showed sorority sisters dressed as miners, with soot-smeared cheeks, making reference to Kanye West鈥檚 song, 鈥淕old Digger.鈥

Investigations of Halloween costumes鈥攅ven where they ultimately exonerate the accused鈥chill protected speech on campus.

That鈥檚 why encouraging students to check themselves on Halloween鈥攁nd backing that encouragement up with threats of disciplinary action鈥攎ight just be the spookiest thing you鈥檒l encounter this season.

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