What an outstanding idea. Let’s hope a nationwide movement forms around this.

The SPLC reports.

Missouri representative files bill to educate college students in the state on free speech

Graduates of public higher education institutions in Missouri may soon be required to study the First Amendment.

Republican Rep. Dean Dohrman filed House Bill No. 1637 in December in response to seeing the viral video of the November protests on the University of Missouri campus where students and university employees attempted to limit student journalists’ access by blocking them from covering a public protest.

The bill would require any student graduating after Aug. 28, 2019, from a two or four-year public institution of higher education in Missouri to complete a three-credit-hour course on freedom of speech. The coursework satisfying the requirement includes the study of freedom of speech as embodied in the First Amendment, discussion of the concepts of freedom of inquiry and the history of speech suppression in the U.S. and other countries.

In November, two university employees were caught on video trying to stop Tim Tai, a student photographer on freelance assignment for ESPN, and Mark Schierbecker, the student photojournalist behind the camera, from recording the campsite where student protesters had gathered. The students, who were fighting to expose racism on campus, called their campsite a “safe space” and had signs prohibiting the media from entering.

Melissa Click, an assistant professor of communication, and Janna Basler, assistant director of Greek Life, helped the protesters create a ring of protection around the campsite to keep out the media. When Tai and Schierbecker tried to enter, both faculty members used verbal and physical threats to shoo them away.