Clay Calvert, director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project and Brechner Eminent Scholar in Mass Communication at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, will be the 2022 First Amendment Day keynote speaker at the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on Sept. 21 at 6:30 p.m.

Calvert’s presentation, “Free Speech and Public School Students – Lessons from a Cursing Cheerleader and South Park,” uses the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2021 ruling in the student-speech case of Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. as a springboard and the kids from South Park as a supporting cast. The talk will address some fundamentals about the First Amendment guarantee of free expression, as well as details about the speech rights of public school students in the social media era.

The speech is part of a campus-wide event, held during National Banned Books Week, that is designed to celebrate the First Amendment and its role in the lives of Carolina residents. Students and other members of the university community will read from banned books and discuss the public university’s special role as a marketplace of ideas and the need to be tolerant when others exercise their rights.

Posted: August 22, 2022
Category: College News, Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project News
Tagged as: Clay Calvert, Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project