Bill would hold colleges liable if students disrupt speakers

TALLAHASSEE — Free-speech zones would be banned and state universities and col- leges could be sued for up to $100,000 in damages if students or others “willfully” interfere with campus speakers or protesters, under a bill approved on a 7-4 vote Tuesday by the Senate Education Committee.

“This is to address a flourishing of the limitation of free speech, particularly across the country. Many of our universities are restricting free speech to free-speech zones,” said Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, who is sponsor- ing the measure (SB 1234). “And there’s something anti- thetical about a free-speech environment saying you can only do it in this little square.”

The more controversial portion of Baxley’s bill would make universities and colleges liable for up to $100,000 in compensa- tory damages if students, faculty, staff members or others “materially disrupt” campus speakers or others expressing their views, including by distributing literature.

The violation would have to be done “willfully,” which is a higher standard than a similar House bill (HB 909) that would also hold universities and colleges liable for disrupting campus speakers.

Baxley said he added the “willful” standard at the request of the state Board of Governors.

Universities need be held accountable for protecting campus speakers, Baxley said, but “at the same time we want to cushion that lia- bility when it is things that have nothing to do with their responsibility.”

Raising concerns about the cost of lawsuits against universities and colleges, Sen. Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale, tried to remove the liability provision, but his amendment was defeated in a voice vote.

Baxley said he was not motivated by any particular instance in Florida, although the University of Florida spent more than $600,000 on security for white nationalist Richard Spencer’s appearance in Gainesville in October. The student crowd interrupted most of his remarks with boos and shouts of “Black Lives Matter,” “Say it loud, say it clear, Nazis are not welcome here,” and even “Let’s go Gators! Let’s go!”