Journalism professor wears conversation starters to her media law class
If you spot Associate Journalism Professor Peggy Watt on campus sporting a T-shirt with an f-bomb on it, you know she’s heading to her media law class for a lecture on student free-speech rights.
“For every class, I wear a T-shirt relevant to the lesson for the day,” Watt said. “The T-shirts serve to jumpstart class discussion.”
Watt and her Media Law T-shirt Collection were recently honored by the Association of Educators in Journalism and Mass Communications. Watt won third place in the teaching ideas competition in the association’s Law and Policy Division.
Watt begins the quarter wearing a shirt emblazoned with the First Amendment, then cycles through tees related to First Amendment history, prior restraint, intellectual property rights, satire, libel, obscenity, and student speech cases like BL vs. Mahanoy Area School District, which inspired the spiciest shirt in Watt’s collection.
“The students loved the shirt, but some were cautious about me wearing it on campus,” Watt said. “One said, ‘You might have to explain it to some people in the halls,’ and I said that was OK with me, and that I counted on THEM explaining it, too.”
The 2021 case was brought by Brandi Levy, a 14-year-old freshman who didn’t get a spot on her school’s varsity cheerleading team. After school hours, Levy posted a Snapchat photo with her middle finger raised with the caption: “Fuck school fuck softball fuck cheer fuck everything.” In response, school administrators suspended Levy from the cheerleading team. But the Supreme Court ruled in the teen’s favor, strengthening First Amendment protections for student speech outside of school.
Watt’s other T-shirts include:
Enemy of the American People Since 1791. The shirt references the year Congress ratified the First Amendment. “That prompt leads to a discussion of First Amendment history, as well as a few observations about the 45th president and his views of the press,” Watt said.
Try to Burn This. Students often ask Watt where she gets her shirts. Most come from her years as a journalist and journalism professor, but this one came from her conservative father-in-law, “who bequeathed me the T-shirt and a flask.”
Mickey Mouse. “I can tell who’s done the reading by students’ reaction when I walk in with the T-shirt featuring Mickey Mouse for more discussion of intellectual property,” she said.
Watt’s shirts also spark discussions on prior restraint, access to public records and reporters’ privilege.
This is the second time Watt has won a teaching award from AEJMC’s Law & Policy Division. She previously won a second-place award for her use of cultural and multimedia references in her media law class.
Watt’s First Amendment T-shirt collection seems to have made a lasting impact on her students, she said.
“Several times, students have shown up in class wearing their own First Amendment T-shirts, which I appreciate,” she said.
Mary Gallagher covers Western’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences and interdisciplinary centers for WWU Communications and edits Western Today, Window magazine and the Family Connection Newsletter. Email her story ideas at mary.gallagher@wwu.edu.