Groups Urge Balance Between Censoring, Stopping Bullies

Court rulings have provided precedent about how K-12 students may express their opinions—even potentially offensive ones—on campus, but a new set of guidelines attempts to provide further clarity for school administrators under pressure to curb bullying and harassment.

The new guidelines shared today were produced by the American Jewish Committee and the Religious Freedom Education Project/First Amendment Center , both based in Washington, and they say that schools must not censor students’ speech purely out of the fear of potential bullying.

Too often, “anytime anyone says something that makes anyone uncomfortable, it’s bullying,” said Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center and director of the Religious Freedom Education Project at...