How the Sex-Harassment Cops Became Speech Police

How the Sex-Harassment Cops Became Speech Police - WSJ:
If you care about free speech on campus, watch closely the First Amendment case of Teresa Buchanan.
An education professor at Louisiana State University for nearly two decades, Ms. Buchanan was skilled at teaching people how to teach others.
She was widely published, secured over $1 million in research grants, and held important positions in respected professional organizations.
On the strength of her record, Ms. Buchanan was recommended for promotion to full professor in November 2013.
Only a month later, however, an LSU administrator informed Ms. Buchanan that she was being pulled from her spring classes.
She wasn’t given an explanation, beyond vague allegations of “inappropriate comments.”
Six months later, Ms. Buchanan was charged with sexual harassment, though no student (or anyone else) had accused her of such.
...After two decades Ms. Buchanan’s teaching methods hadn’t changed—but the understanding of “sexual harassment” had.
In 2013 the federal government announced a new definition intended as a “blueprint” for colleges nationwide. 
It explained that sexual harassment was “any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature,” including “verbal conduct.” 
Free-speech advocates warned that the feds’ broad definition, if adopted, would sharply curtail First Amendment rights on campus.
LSU’s sexual-harassment policy mirrors the federal blueprint by prohibiting “unwelcome verbal, visual, or physical behavior of a sexual nature.”
It’s not clear what prompted the university to adopt that language, or when it did so.
But after LSU was criticized for firing Ms. Buchanan, it rushed out a statement that explained: “The Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education has advised universities that ‘harassment does not have to include intent to harm, be directed at a specific target, or involve repeated incidents.’...