The Arizona Senate defeated legislation today that would have allowed college students to opt out of required reading they found personally offensive or pornographic. The measure would have guaranteed students the option of completing alternative course work if an assignment conflicted with their “beliefs or practices in sex, morality, or religion.”
College officials objected to the bill, criticizing it as overly broad and an intrusion by the Legislature into the classroom (The Chronicle, February 17). The bill’s sponsor reworked the bill so that it applied only to materials considered obscene under state law, but it was still defeated, 17 to 12.
