A foundation that for decades has sponsored local students’ educational trips to France is holding off on its support to Pierce College and other local campuses because officials are “chilling” free speech, said its president.

Bakersfield-based attorney H. Dennis Beaver, of The Dennis and Anne Beaver Foundation, said his organization supports students worldwide to study in France, and has been particularly dedicated to Los Angeles Valley Community College, where he once attended.

Beaver wanted to expand his financial support to Pierce Community College, too.

But the case of Kevin Shaw, a student at Pierce, changed that.

RELATED STORY: Student lawsuit in Pierce College free speech case gets support from Trump’s Justice Department

Shaw contends in a lawsuit filed earlier this year against the Los Angeles Community College District that Pierce violated his civil rights when he was barred from passing out Spanish-language copies of the U.S. Constitution. The school said he wasn’t in the school’s free speech zone — an outdoor area roughly the size of three parking spaces — and because he hadn’t applied in advance to use it.

In addition to challenging free speech zones and permit requirements, the lawsuit challenges a district policy requiring the presidents of each of its colleges to designate at least one free speech zone on their campus.

RELATED STORY: Student sues Pierce College over tiny ‘free speech zone’

The lawsuit also asks the court to strike down policies at Pierce and the college district that limit free speech, and seeks unspecified monetary damages.

Last week, the Department of Justice weighed into the case. It filed a brief in support of Shaw’s lawsuit alleging policies that restricting student free speech rights to tiny zones is unconstitutional and infringes on First Amendment rights.

“We were looking forward to sending a Valley student and a Pierce student to France next summer,” Beaver said on Wednesday.

Now his organization is withholding all future financial support at colleges the organization supports, which he said is valued between $7,000 and $10,000 per student, until the free speech ruling is knocked down or adjudicated by the courts.

“We are on hold until they fix it,” Beaver said on Wednesday.

Beaver, a graduate of Cal State Northridge and Loyola University Law School, said the free speech zones at Valley and Pierce colleges are poorly located on sprawling campuses.

“Designating an area where you are permitted to have spirited debate is anti-free speech,” Beaver said. “It’s chilling, it restrains, puts a damper on free speech,” he said. “We are not going to support an organization that fragrantly denies students their rights under the First Amendment. We are putting everything on hold. Or, until a decision in the court that rules it’s legal. Then we will respect the decision. But, that’s not going to happen.”

A motion filed by the college district to dismiss hearing the case is scheduled for Nov. 14 before U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II.

“We do not comment on pending litigation,’ district spokesman Yusef Robb said in a prepared statement on Wednesday. “We are fully committed to free expression on our campuses. As a community college district, promoting the free exchange of ideas and knowledge is at the core of what we do, every day.”

Shaw, a 27-year-old political science and philosophy major at Pierce College, said on Wednesday that it was the first he had heard of Beaver’s actions.

“Wow. That actually feels good to know someone out there supports me in that way,” he said.

“It’s good to know that philanthropists feel the same way I do. I appreciate their support.”

Beaver predicts Los Angeles community colleges will face significant economic consequences should they continue to defend free speech cases in court.

Currently, a permit is required to engage in free speech in the designated free speech zones on Valley and Pierce campuses.

“(That’s) prior restraint. It impedes free speech,” Beaver said. “Saying that students are forbidden to in free speech unless they obtain a permit is galling. A university should be a place of spirited debate and not that you can’t engage in your first speech rights unless we give you permission. What are we China now?”

The East Coast-based Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which brought its first lawsuit against the District with the Shaw case, claims about one in six institutions maintained free speech zones in small or out-of-the-way areas in a September 2013 report.

“Now, it is down to one in ten,” wrote Samantha Harris, the Foundation’s vice president of policy research.

The issue is definitely not new in Southern California.

A month after a Cal Poly Pomona student sued the university over a policy that limited political speech to permit-holders standing in a defined area on campus, the university said would not enforce the policy while the matter is being litigated.

In that case, a lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of Nicolas Tomas, then a senior majoring in nutrition, an animal rights activist. Tomas had been handing out Vegan Outreach pamphlets since the fall of 2013. His preference was to give them out near the university’s parking garage, to take advantage of the high amount of foot traffic in the area. But, he argued, he routinely heard from administrators, demanding that he leave if he did not possess a permit.

In the Pierce case, Shaw says he was approached by a Pierce administrator who told him that he could not distribute literature outside the campus free speech zone, a tiny part of the 426-acre campus. If he refused to comply, Shaw was told he would be asked to leave campus, according to his court papers.

He said at the time: “When I attempted to hand out copies of the Constitution that day, my only intention was to get students thinking about our founding principles and to inspire discussion of liberty and free speech.

“I had no idea I would be called upon to defend those very ideals against Pierce’s unconstitutional campus policies. This fight is about a student’s right to engage in free thinking and debate while attending college in America.”

As for the the travel program itself, Jessica Zaldana, a former Los Angeles Valley College student who was awarded a trip to France to study the language, art and culture, said in an e-mail on Wednesday said she understood the foundation’s position.

“I appreciate their support to protect students’ First Amendment rights,” Zaldana said. “I hope that the foundation’s actions will help the (Los Angeles Community College District) administration to reconsider their free-speech zone policy.”