Free Essay On Free Speech Zone

Generally, the free speech zones are the places that are set aside in college or university campus or in the public places to use the right of speech in the United States. The term “free speech zone” insinuates that the free speech is not allowed everywhere. However, this idea must be to limit the unruly crowd to maintain peace and discipline. It is the responsibility of the educational institutions to provide safe and secure atmosphere to the students for learning and help them to excel. The free speech zones are not created to limit the freedom of speech, but it is to create a safe and secure atmosphere to help students to concentrate more on learning. The universities hold the rights to remove or relocate the activity if they find it disturbing the environment due to the excessive level of noise or threatening the person’s safety. For example, Longwood University in Virginia has a free speech zone that limits demonstration, pamphlet distribution, and speeches, and requires the zone to be registered five working days in advance. It does not mean that they are restricting freedom of speech, but taking precautionary actions to protect the peace of the environment. To use the free speech zones more powerfully and effectively, a proper definition should be given to making this idea more purposeful and useful.
Nowadays, the word “free speech zone” itself becomes more controversial to be debated, especially in college and university campus. As there are proponents, there are also opponents of this idea. Students are the major opponents for the free speech zones because they feel the free speech zones are far from free. Even though the idea of limiting the free speech is different; however, the students think that they are restricted to express their opinions on the rest of the campus. The following characteristics of the free speech zone in colleges and universities may be the reason for their opposition towards it. To use this zone, students need to pre-register the space well in advance that is five working days in advance. However, they can get only a limited time to use the free speech area, which means one can use the free speech zone for two hours per seven-day period. The allotted free speech space is the limited area that may not enough to meet their requirements. At a time, only one activity is permitted within the zone. Above all, according to the policy, every activity that happens in the free speech zone should be registered with the university ten business days in advance. If there is any violation of this policy, they may be charged with trespassing.
Rather than restricting the freedom of speech, it is better to have an allotted zone for expressing the opinions of a person within the campus. This idea is to make sure that the purpose of the educational institution should not be disturbed by the person’s right to freedom of speech. The free speech zone acts as a remedy to the issue of maintaining a safe educational environment without affecting the person’s right to speech. The terms and conditions may seem limiting the freedom of speech; still, it gives more protection to the campus and learning environment. Every citizen has the right to speak about the problems and issue in the country. However, the educational institutions should not be the place for debates and disputes that may spoil the peaceful environment of the campus. This is not the action to undermine the right of the free speech of a person, but to allot a proper and perfect place for the protesters to voice their ideas without spoiling the peace of the others.