Occidental College: Use of Harassment Charges to Suppress Protected Speech

Case Materials

• " Victory at Long Last: Occidental College Settles Free Speech Lawsuit with Wronged Student," FIRE Press Release, October 19, 2007: Following a three-year dispute and a multi-million-dollar lawsuit, Occidental College and former student shock jock Jason Antebi have settled a lawsuit in which Antebi sued the school for maliciously violating his freedom of speech and due process rights when it fired him and found him guilty of “harassment” for jokes both on and off the air. Stunningly, Occidental used this controversy as a pretext to dissolve the student government and began an aggressive campaign of false accusations and distortions to justify its actions. FIRE took up Antebi’s defense in 2004 and is happy to announce that Antebi is pleased with the outcome of the settlement.
• "Appellant's Opening Brief in Antebi v. Occidental College," January 23, 2006
• "Student Files Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuit Against Occidental College After College Censored Speech and Dissolved Student Government," FIRE Press Release, March 15, 2005: Today, former student Jason Antebi sued Occidental College in Los Angeles for millions of dollars for maliciously violating his basic rights and those of the entire student community. Last year, administrators fired Antebi from his position as host of a popular student radio program and found him guilty of sexual harassment for satirical jokes he made on the air. Occidental then used the controversy as a pretext for dissolving the entire student government. When FIRE took up Antebi’s case, the college began an aggressive and far-reaching campaign of false accusations and misrepresentations to justify its actions. Occidental must now answer for its actions in court.
• "ACLU of Southern California’s Second Letter Regarding Occidental College, March 11, 2005," March 11, 2005
• "Occidental Continues Campaign Against Students," FIRE Press Release, October 18, 2004: Last spring, Occidental College in Los Angeles unjustly punished a student DJ for “sexual harassment” for on-air jokes, and then used the controversy as an excuse to dissolve the student government. FIRE wrote in protest of this violation of students’ rights; the college replied with distortion and deceit. When FIRE pointed out Oxy’s misrepresentations, the college fell silent. A new article in the Occidental Weekly newspaper reveals that the college is continuing its dishonest and shameful campaign. FIRE invites you to read the article and examine the evidence for yourself.
• "Occidental College Ruthlessly Suppresses Free Speech," FIRE Press Release, July 15, 2004: Occidental College in Los Angeles has fired Jason Antebi, the student host of a popular radio program, and found him guilty of sexual harassment due to satirical jokes made on the air. Outrageously, Occidental then used this controversy as a pretext to dissolve the student government and began a campaign of false accusations and distortions to justify its actions. FIRE has formed a national coalition of organizations and is conducting a public campaign to oppose Occidental's outrageous actions.
• "FIRE Letter to Occidental College Board of Trustees, June 4, 2004," June 4, 2004
• "ACLU Letter to Occidental College General Counsel Sandra Cooper, May 7, 2004," May 7, 2004
• "FIRE Letter to Occidental College General Counsel Sandra Cooper, May 6, 2004," May 6, 2004
• "Letter from Occidental College General Counsel Sandra Cooper to FIRE, April 2, 2004," April 2, 2004
• "FIRE Letter to Occidental College President Ted Mitchell, March 30, 2004," March 30, 2004

Blog Entries

• "This Month in FIRE History: FIRE Defends Student “Shock Jock” at Occidental College," Claire Jenkins, July 23, 2008

Media Coverage

• "Victory: Occidental College settles free speech lawsuit with wronged student," Family Security Matters, October 22, 2007:        
• "Occidental College settles lawsuit with ‘shock jock’ student," The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 19, 2007:  
• "Ex-‘shock jock’ at Occidental College settles lawsuit," Alex Dobuzinskis, LA Daily News, October 19, 2007: EAGLE ROCK - A former “shock jock” at Occidental College ’s Internet radio station has settled his defamation lawsuit against the college.    
• "California Supreme Court denies shock jock's request for review," Marnette Federis, Student Press Law Center News Flash, November 1, 2006
• "Lawyers for former Occidental shock jock ask California Supreme Court for review," Marnette Federis, Student Press Law Center News Flash, September 29, 2006: Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an organization that assisted Antebi in the case, said the Leonard Law was supposed to give students at private colleges the same rights as those in public universities.
• "Judges allow defamation lawsuit against Oxy to proceed," Nick Velkavrh, The Occidental Weekly, September 27, 2006: Occidental Alumnus and former KOXY “shock-jock” Jason Antebi (’04) can sue Occidental College and its General Counsel Sandra Cooper for defamation, according to a decision handed down by a California appellate court last month.
• "Occidental offenses," Anthony Dick, National Review Online, September 5, 2006: As FIRE’s Lukianoff has put it, “Oxy found a student guilty of violating federal harassment law for on-air jokes and insults — a redefinition of harassment law that is representative of a disturbing shift in California’s ability to distinguish between unprotected harassment and free speech.” Now California’s highest court has the chance to step in and make that distinction crystal clear — and render overdue justice to Jason Antebi.
• "Jason Antebi, Occidental College, and free speech," Ben Shapiro, Townhall.com, August 25, 2006
• "Antebi Files Appeal Suit Against Oxy," Nick Velkavrh, The Occidental Weekly, February 15, 2006
• "Court dismisses former college radio host's lawsuit," Kim Peterson, Student Press Law Center, October 6, 2005: A Superior Court in Los Angeles dismissed a former college radio host's lawsuit, which claimed that his First Amendment rights were violated when school officials fired him for content he aired.
• "Former shock jock sues college for pulling him off the airwaves," Student Press Law Center, October 1, 2005: “People can think his speech was poor and sophomoric or whatever they feel, but for a variety of different reasons, no matter how you feel about it, it seems clear that it’s speech that’s protected,” said Peter Eliasberg, an attorney for the ACLU’s Southern California chapter.
• "The Chill Is Nothing New," Greg Lukianoff, The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 9, 2005: Some would like to imagine that the excesses of "political correctness” are ancient history, but repression in the name of tolerance hasn't gone anywhere. Oppressive speech codes are not only still around—they have actually multiplied, even after numerous court decisions declared them unconstitutional.
• "Wronging student rights," Greg Lukianoff, The Boston Globe, September 3, 2005: As summer ends and college students return to campus, a number of dreadful court decisions may cause them to wonder if their rights have taken a permanent vacation.
• "Oxy President's Departure Doesn't Erase Speech Issue," Greg Lukianoff and Samantha Harris, Daily Journal, July 6, 2005: Although Occidental College is private, California's Leonard Law applies First Amendment protection to students at private colleges. Under the First Amendment, parody and satire enjoy the strongest of constitutional protection precisely because they tend to anger and provoke listeners. The fact that certain students did not like being picked on does not mean that they were harassed. If it were otherwise, virtually any modern comedian would be sued into submission after every performance.
• "Polly gaffes," Mark Bergin, World Magazine, April 16, 2005
• "'Pollys' Spotlight Politically Correct Excesses On U.S. Campuses," Jim Brown, Agape Press, April 14, 2005: A higher education watchdog group has unveiled its annual "Campus Outrage Awards," documenting the worst "absurdities" and most egregious examples of political correctness on college campuses this year.
• "Former Calif. university shock jock sues school for First Amendment violations," Diane Krauthamer, Student Press Law Center, April 5, 2005: A year after Occidental College fired him from his radio station job for making jokes on the air that school officials referred to as "hate speech," former student and radio host Jason Antebi sued the private school for violating his constitutional rights.
• "2005 Campus Outrage Awards," Collegiate Network, Campus Magazine, April 1, 2005
• "Alumnus sues: alleged damages $10 million," The Occidental Weekly, March 23, 2005
• "FIRE Claims Oxy's Blowing Smoke, Smearing Plaintiff in Censorship Suit," Jim Brown, Agape Press, March 21, 2005: A former student has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Occidental College in Los Angeles for allegedly censoring his speech and dissolving the student government.
• "Shock jock sues college," Cindy Chang, Pasadena Star News, March 18, 2005: A former Occidental College talk radio host whose verbal skewering of fellow students prompted school officials to discipline him for sexual harassment has sued his alma mater for $10 million.
• "Fired Campus Radio 'Shock Jock' Sues College," Stuart Silverstein, Los Angeles Times, March 16, 2005: Contending that his freedom of speech was violated and reputation damaged, a former student ousted last year by Occidental College as co-host of a "shock jock"-style campus radio show sued his alma mater Tuesday for more than $10 million.
• "$10 Million Lawsuit Alleges Violation of Free Speech," Occidental Magazine, March 1, 2005: Jason Antebi ’04 filed a $10 million civil suit against Occidental in March, alleging that his free speech rights were violated and his reputation tarnished last year when he was removed from his student radio show and subjected to discipline. Antebi claims he should have been allowed to continue to broadcast “Rant and Rave” on student radio station KOXY, and that student complaints about the show that triggered the discipline were politically motivated—the result of his actions as vice president for policy for Associated Students of Occidental College.
• "Dark Times for Students at Occidental College," Greg Lukianoff and William Creeley, Campus Circle, December 27, 2004: Despite the uproar about the Federal Communications Commission’s aggressive attempts to clean up America’s airwaves, a shocking case of censorship that recently occurred in California has garnered precious little attention. What makes this case even more distressing is that it originated in a medium where one would expect free speech to be sacrosanct: college radio.
• "Difference between offensive, unprotected speech," Jason Antebi, Pasadena Star News, December 8, 2004: In March of 2004, I was hastily fired from the radio show I had hosted for three years as a student at Occidental College in Los Angeles and found guilty of "sexual harassment" against my entire audience for parodying two student government rivals on my show. My crime? I had called one a "bearded feminist" and the other a "douche."
• "Oxy Caught in the Crossfire," The Occidental Weekly, October 13, 2004: Over the past five months civil-libertarian groups and Occidental College administrators have been engaged in an often-heated struggle over one student's alleged violation of the College's Sexual Harassment Policy. What started as a debate-by-letters over the legal definition of sexual harassment has escalated into a disagreement over the very facts of the case. While the administration eventually cut off contact with civil-libertarian groups, the organizations have continued to write letters, conduct parallel investigations and attract as much media attention as possible. Their hope: to force Occidental to overturn its decision.
• "Dark times for student rights," Greg Lukianoff and William Creeley, The Northerner, October 6, 2004: Despite the uproar about the Federal Communications Commission's aggressive attempts to clean up America's airwaves, a shocking case of censorship that recently occurred in California has garnered precious little attention.
• "Breaking the Silence," Minnie Quach, Guerrilla News Network, September 29, 2004: Editor's note: Last month, we ran an article entitled, "Backlash 101," by GNN contributor Joshua Holland, editor of USC's progressive paper, The Trojan Horse. Holland argued that heavily-funded conservative groups were taking advantage of an anti-political correctness backlash to make political gains among impressionable college students across the country.
• "Freedom of speech: RIC ends the inquisition, not the debate," Greg Lukianoff, The Providence Journal, September 22, 2004: ON SEPT. 9, Rhode Island College tried to weasel out of an embarrassing free-speech controversy, in which it had tried a professor for doing nothing more than refusing to violate the First Amendment. And though RIC's decision not to proceed with "further formal action" against the professor was welcome, it did nothing to convince civil-liberties watchdogs that free speech is secure at RIC.
• "Occidental College's Censorship of Radio Station Marks Abuse of Power," William Creeley and Greg Lukianoff, Daily Journal, September 22, 2004: Despite the uproar about the Federal Communication Commission's aggressive attempts to clean up America's airwaves, a shocking case of censorship that recently occurred in Southern California has garnered precious little attention. What makes this case even more distressing is that it originated in a medium in which one would expect free speech to be sacrosanct: college radio.
• "Oxy’s morons," Mike Adams, Townhall.com, August 4, 2004: On March 30th of this year, Occidental College President Ted Mitchell announced that he was disbanding the Occidental College student government due to various instances of “abusive, intimidating, harassing behavior that have no place on (Occidental’s) campus.” According to Mitchell, such acts were “masquerading as open expression.” This action by the college now means that $441,000 in student fees will not be administered by the students’ elected representatives. Instead, they have been confiscated by college administrators.
• "Educational Group: Occidental on Thin Ice, Suppressing Student Free Speech," Jim Brown, Agape Press, July 20, 2004: Occidental College in Los Angeles is being accused of suppressing free speech by firing the host of a popular student radio program and finding him guilty of sexual harassment due to satirical jokes he made on the air.
• "Occidental Suspends Student Government," Stuart Silverstein, Los Angeles Times, April 2, 2004