On April 2014, the student senate at UC Santa Barbara passed a new resolution that forces professors to include "trigger warnings" in their course syllabi. Trigger warnings initially evolved in the Internet community and were intended for survivors of sexual assault and soldiers with PTSD. They were warnings that would let the victims know beforehand that trauma might be triggered if they continued reading. On college campuses, however, trigger warnings take on a whole new meaning. According to the article, "The Coddling of the American Mind," trigger warnings are "alerts that professors are expected to issue if something in a course might cause a strong emotional response."
             So the simple fact that a certain issue or topic might make a student angry, uncomfortable, or offended is enough reason for a student to be excused from the discussion with no penalty to their grade. Not only are these trigger warnings censoring students' education, but they are also tearing down everything that higher education stands for. Higher education is meant to enrich students' knowledge, critical thinking, and open them to other views but how can this be accomplished when students want to view no views rather than their own? Sadly, this generation of college students has become way too sensitive and narrow-minded which is why I agree with the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times who opposes trigger warnings on college professors' syllabi.
             Students claim that trigger warnings are not censorship because they only give notice for them to avoid exposure. However, anytime someone is told what he or she cannot say, read, or watch, it automatically becomes censorship. In this case, the students are censoring themselves from learning, contradicting the whole purpose of attending college. According to "On Trigger Warnings" by the American Association of University Professors, it states, "The presum...