How Free Is the Speech of Public School Students?

In some cases, students have sued their school boards for taking down their projects or art that they felt was being censored. Some students won their cases, while others lost. The reason for this is that different courts have different ways of looking at these kinds of disputes. There isn’t a clear answer to whether the students’ rights under the First Amendment were violated. In 1969, the Supreme Court said that students have the right to express themselves in school as long as it doesn’t disrupt learning or interfere with other people’s rights. This means students can wear armbands to protest things like the Vietnam War. But if their actions cause big problems at school, they can still get in trouble. In this case, the Supreme Court upheld a school’s decision to punish a student for giving a sexually suggestive speech at an assembly. The Court said that public schools have a responsibility to teach students to be polite and considerate, and to respect the feelings of others. It’s okay to express unpopular or controversial ideas, but students also need to learn what is appropriate behavior in society. The school has a right to decide what kind of speech is not okay at school events. In Tinker v. Des Moines, the Supreme Court said students have the right to free speech in school, as long as it doesn’t disrupt learning. But in Fraser v. Bethel School District, the Court said vulgar or indecent speech can be banned, even outside of school-sponsored events. The Court also said that the school newspaper in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier was not a public forum for free expression, so the principal could censor it. School officials have the right to regulate what goes in the school newspaper, as long as it’s for educational purposes. The rules for this are different from the rules in the Tinker case, which involved students expressing their personal views at school. The rules for the school newspaper are more strict, and it’s up to the courts to decide if the school is allowed to control what goes in the paper. The decision might depend on whether the school intended for the newspaper to be a place for students to freely express themselves. If it didn’t, the school can have more control over what gets published. The Supreme Court has ruled that groups should be allowed access to public school facilities for meetings and events, even if they are for religious purposes. This means that high school students can also request access to hold meetings before or after school. It’s hard to distinguish these cases from ones involving students expressing themselves during school hours. After the Supreme Court’s decision in Hazelwood, lower federal courts have had mixed results in student speech cases. Some courts have applied “public forum” analysis, while others have not. The outcomes have varied, and there is no clear consensus on how to approach these cases. Ultimately, the legal landscape for student speech claims post-Hazelwood remains complex and uncertain. Students have challenged the rules about distributing written materials and wearing certain clothing and symbols at school. Some courts have said that schools can’t require approval for distributing materials ahead of time, unless it causes a big disruption. But other courts have said it’s okay for schools to review materials before they’re distributed. When it comes to clothing and symbols, some rules have been struck down as unfair, while others have been upheld. Overall, the courts have used a standard that looks at whether the speech or clothing causes a disruption at school. Marc Rohr is a law professor at Nova Southeastern University. He has been teaching there since 1976.

Source: https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/how-free-is-the-speech-of-public-school-students/