This post originally published here.
Students at California State University San Marcos have filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, under Titles IX, VI and II of the Americans With Disabilities Act. The complaint seeks immediate injunctive and remedial action against California State University, San Marcos (CSUSM), with regard to its decision to allow the distribution of a publication on campus known as The Koala, because of the hostile environment the university has allowed the publication to develop at CSUSM.
The Koala was established as a student organization in 1982, at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). But by 2005, the tabloid had become a privately held, for-profit publishing company. According the San Diego County records, the company is owned by George Lee Liddle III, a former UCSD student. The publication now has three editions, which are distributed at UCSD, San Diego State University and, the most recent edition, at CSUSM.
The Koala regularly contains prejudicial and hostile content based on sex, race, sexual orientation, ethnicity and disabilities. The publication has printed numerous articles, photographs and other images about women students and women as a class, as well as other protected class categories, causing targeted students to feel fearful, unsafe and unable to fully access educational and other programs on campus, particularly in popular campus venues where The Koala is distributed.
CSUSM students filed the complaint because a recent letter demanding assistance from the university, to protect the campus community from the hostile environment created by The Koala and the company’s aggressive and hostile distribution tactics, received no response. It was only from local news media coverage that the students learned the university intended to maintain its stance that The Koala is protected speech, hence, the university would not take the actions requested in the letter.
“Officials at CSUSM have enabled the severe and pervasive harassment of women and other classes of students targeted for such harassment by ‘The Koala,’” explained Wendy Murphy, an adjunct professor at New England Law Boston and a Title IX expert who is assisting the students with their complaint.
“It is clear that the harassment of students, including verbal conduct, is a form of discrimination prohibited by the statutes enforced by the Office for Civil Rights,” Murphy said. “The presence of ‘The Koala’ at Cal State San Marcos has created an environment that any reasonable person would find intimidating, hostile and offensive, and this environment is limiting the Cal State students’ ability to participate in and benefit from educational programs. The university is bound by federal law to provide a prompt and effective response on behalf of victimized students and the integrity of the academic environment as a whole.”
Editor’s note: The students, faculty and staff of CSUSM have launched a petition, also targeting the administration. Show them your support by signing the petition.
W T F ! 
Karen
November 28, 2011
I am all for free speech, but all in it’s place. School is not a place for hateful messages! they write them with chalk all over school and you cant even walk from class to class without seeing hateful messages, “loving rape” and loving sexism, and racist messages that make me feel uncomfortable. Students can talk about it and say it elsewhere, but not on campus. Schools have to be inclusive and make everyone feel safe and at home.
Csusm guy
November 16, 2011
The koala has nothing to do with learning at all! Where do you even come up with these accusations? Its is freedom of speech and anyone can write whatever they feel like writing. Nobody has to read the koala, and for all of you who are against it, your still supporting it by reading it. It’s entertainment which is media, not everyone likes the media.
Concerned Citizen
November 16, 2011
Wow. To limit the freedom of speech on a college campus is absurd. Considering it’s been a long time from the Bill of Rights was written, have some parts of society not evolved?
dreamerjess147
November 16, 2011
Concerned Citizen, we are not trying to limit free speech on the campus. Our request to the university was not to ban or censor The Koala, but rather to require it to publish its authors’ real, full names, and that it be distributed via vendor boxes, like every other newspaper on this campus. The administration refused to do so. We also requested the university state that The Koala’s content is hateful and does not jibe with the CSUSM’s values of tolerance and appreciation for diversity, but they did not choose to do so.
You might want to reread the article’s description of The Koala’s content, and see Natalie Wilson’s comment below.
Please, check out this link to The Koala online and ask yourself if you think the magazine’s outright harassment of minority groups and specific students should be tolerated on a school campus. Ask yourself if saying a lockdown is an excuse “to rape my TA” and “Dilcie, go jump off the parking structure” really falls under the auspices of free speech.
Click to access Koala-Issue-Winter-2011.pdf
CSUSM Student
November 12, 2011
Really….. I don’t agree with what the Koala has to say so I don’t read it. They are passing it out so if you want to read it take it if you don’t then don’t. They are not forcing you to read it so calm and and let them have their first amendment right! Without free speech there cannot be a free society. If you start limiting free speech were will it stop? How do you draw the lines? The Koala is not outside preeching it and sayong out there to everybodys face. Hate speech is allowed in the US now if they actually took action on about all of this stuff then it would be different but they are not. How is saying hey do you want the Koala creating a hostile environment? Just politely say no and they will move along.
Natalie Wilson
November 12, 2011
The Koala aggressively distributes the paper, name calling and shouting at people who don’t take it. They also shout things such as “free porn” and have given the paper to 17 year-old students, something that is illegal. What they are doing is HARASSMENT – harassment does not fall under protected speech. Also, your claim to “calm down” and “let them have their first amendment rights” is rather ironic given that you are suggesting we not exercise our rights to complain about the paper. This is NOT about limiting free speech, it’s about harassment and the university’s responsibility to take actions. As far as creating a hostile environment, numerous students have come forward saying the no longer feel safe on campus, that they don’t feel safe speaking out against the paper,and that they feel personally threatened. Why harassment and constant threats of rape directed towards female students is something you are anxious to defend is beyond me… Perhaps you don’t realize we DON’T live in a free society – and women particularly so!
seybe001
November 12, 2011
Great job on spreading awareness to fight hate speech! The quote that you included from Wendy Murphy at the end of this article really touches on what the whole reasoning is behind fighting the Koala. The Koala creates a hostile environment in which students find it harder to learn in. Unless a person (in this case a student),feels safe and secure in their environment, they will not be able to concentrate on new material or retain new information during the learning process.