Date of Award

5-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department/Program

Political Science and Law

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Ian Drake

Committee Member

Jack Baldwin-LeClair

Committee Member

Avram Segall

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the New Jersey Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act (N.J.S.A 18A:37-13 et seq.) and New Jersey's overall attempt at combating bullying in public schools in both secondary and higher education. It is found in this research that the New Jersey statute holds potentially unconstitutional provisions in the language of the statute. By examining both the First and Fourteenth Amendment, this research taps into cases like Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, and DeJohn v. Temple University in order to craft both a sound and constitutional speech code. It is found that recent public university speech codes tend to focus on the Fourteenth Amendment regulations while at times neglecting First Amendment regulations. Overall, this research highlights that it is possible to socially challenge new ideas both popular and unpopular yet, defend the freedom of speech on a legal level.

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