Texas College Taking Heat For Denying Students' Right To Empty Holster Protest

A Texas college in April prevented students there from holding an "Empty Holster Protest." They now have a problem on their hands.

The legacy media is weighing in with significant coverage of the unconstitutional ban on students' speech rights.

Among the media outlets covering the complaints leveled against Tarrant County College: the Associated Press and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Amazingly, TCC Vice President for Student Development Juan Garcia in one story offered the college's unbelievably weak explanation for denying its students their constitutional right to free expression: "We're protecting the learning environment," Garcia said. "From a distance, you can't tell if a holster is empty or not."

Robert L. Shibley, vice president for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, said wearing empty holsters is similar to students donning black arm bands to protest the Vietnam War, a right that the Supreme Court upheld in 1969.

"It's important because it's a matter of symbolic speech," Shibley said.

Nicely said.