Virginia Tech: The Free Speech Angle

A University of Colorado-Boulder student who was arrested and suspended Tuesday for making classroom comments that were sympathetic with the Virginia Tech shooter was released on $1,000 bail yesterday, the Colorado Daily reports. The student's father, who cosigned for the boy's release, tells the Daily that his son was trying to add another side to the conversation. "He was participating in a purely academic discussion," the father says. "He was not playing the devil's advocate, but he was simply trying to show that the shooter was not inhuman."

But some students in the class interpreted the remarks as threats, according to the university police. "Everyone has a clear right to an education without being threatened," says CU-Boulder Police Commander Brad Wiesley. "Other students [in the student's class Tuesday] didn't take his comments as honest debate, and many said that they didn't feel safe coming back to class. People have a right to an education."

The American Civil Liberties Union has sided with the student and is working to have the charges dropped, according to the Daily. --K.T.