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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2025 - 2026
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 2, 2024 09:11 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Art Haywood |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Prohibiting Racial Harassment on College Campuses |
| In the near future, I plan to reintroduce legislation that prohibits racial harassment on college campuses across Pennsylvania. Specifically, my legislation prohibits the use of fighting words to harass an individual or group based on race or ethnicity on any college campus located in the Commonwealth. In Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme court defined student-on-student harassment as targeted, discriminatory conduct that is “so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive, and that so detracts from the victims’ educational experience, that the victim-students are effectively denied equal access to an institution’s resources and opportunities.” I came to fully understand the depth and breadth of the speech that causes students to withdraw from colleges by visiting each campus within the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE). During these visits, I was able to hear directly from Black and Brown students on incidents of racial harassment that continue to occur on Pennsylvania’s college campuses. Racial harassment has led to severe mental trauma among Black and Brown students. It is imperative that the General Assembly act now to ensure that future generations of students are not limited in their ability to participate in and benefit from their schools. Please join me in co-sponsoring this legislation to ensure students on all the Commonwealth’s college campuses are protected from racial harassment. |