Fear Vs. Free Expression

When college writing instructor Jan Richman first read the horrifying tale of sexual violence and murder that one of her students handed in last fall, she was taken aback by its gruesome detail and terrifyingly unsympathetic tone. But being a teacher, she chose to address the story in literary terms with her class, and to use it as a way to discuss the difference between gratuitous repulsiveness and violent imagery in the service of literature. But “before the week was out, the student was expelled and sent home, the instructor was fighting for her job, and many students and faculty were left wondering about issues of artistic and academic freedom in the post-Columbine era of heightened fear over student safety.”