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The latest news from every corner of the state, including policy emerging from Missouri's capitol.

MO House Bill Says Faculty Should Be "Cautious About Expressing Personal Views" In The Classroom

Luke Jones/Flickr, License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode

The Missouri House gave initial approval on Wednesday to a Campus Free Expression Act that could curtail faculty free speech.

Most of the provisions in the bill deal with ensuring college campuses don’t limit students’ free speech. But the bill says university faculty should be “cautious in expressing personal views in the classroom.”

Democratic Representative Peter Merideth says he’s concerned this could lead to lawsuits against faculty members for expressing their religious or political affiliations. That’s because another section of the bill says people can bring action in court against university employees if they violate a section of the bill.

“Aren’t we creating a whole bunch of separation of church and state lawsuits or infringement of free speech lawsuits if a teacher is talking about their Christianity?” says Merideth.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Dean Dohrman, disagreed with Merideth’s interpretation of the bill. Dohrman says a faculty member can’t be fired for speaking about religious or political affiliation in class unless the speech is not relevant to the class and takes up a large portion of teaching time.