In 1787 our forefathers ratified the
constitution of the United
States of
America, which contains the most important document to
any American
citizen, the Bill of Rights. The first
amendment of the
Bill of Rights
states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the establishment
thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech; or of the
press; or the right of
the people peaceably to assemble, and to
petition the
government for a redress of grievances.
these freedoms (commonly called the freedom of
expression) are of
the most
important rights in a truly democratic
society. Without
them there would
be no new ideas; we would all conform under
totalitarian rule
for fear of punishment. However, when
I, a common
student at West
Rowan High School try to express my
feelings on "the
state of the Bill
of Rights in schools today" by making
a computer
presentation in
multimedia class, my work is declared "bad" and my
teacher and
assistant principal do one of the most un-American things
imaginable: they
censored it. I had to re-make the
presentation and
lighten the harsh
tone, and also erase the anarchy symbol from it. The
teacher said that
she was worried about me for reasons such as my
feelings on the
freedom of religion were almost satanic, because I said
teachers should
not be able to publicly practice religion in schools
because it will
encourage students to become a part of that religion.
The presentation
was neither slanderous nor obscene, but it did
criticize
teachers and administrators calling them "fascist dictators".
At first I was
angry at the school because I could wear clothing that
was obscene or
contained liquor advertisements, now
they have
completely taken
away my freedom of speech. This of course proved
my argument that
teachers and administrators are totalitarians.
As
one journalist
put it, "If Freedom of expression becomes merely an
empty slogan in
the minds of enough children, it will be dead by the
time we are
adults." I soon began reading more and more about the
freedom of speech
in schools and every time a subject as such came up
the Supreme Court
ruled in favor of the student declaring the action
unconstitutional
under the first amendment. As I was
reading Nat
Hentoff's book
The First Freedom I came across a story in which a
student wrote a
newspaper article criticizing the school administration,
soon after he ran
for student government and was taken off the ballot
for his
critique. Unfortunately he did not
fight it in court. The principal sharply
taught the student, "The constitution of this school takes precedence over
the United States Constitution. The
freedom of expression in school is
marred by
society but not
completely dissolved by the administration.
The 1969 supreme court ruling Tinker v. Des
Moins Community
Schools defined a
student's freedom of speech best. John
and Mary
Beth Tinker wore
black armbands to school as a protest of the
Vietnam war. It was a silent protest; the Tinker's never
caused one
problem, although
some students did make threats at them.
The
school's
administrators made them take them off.
Their case made it
all the way to
the US Supreme Court, where it won a 7-2
ruling.
(Pascoe, 96) Justice Abe Fortas gave an excellent
interpretation of a
students freedom
of speech when he said:
"It can hardly be argued that either
students or teachers shed
their rights at the schoolhouse gate... In our
system, state-
operated schools may not be the enclaves of
totalitarianism.
School officials do not possess absolute
authority over their
students.
Students in school as well as out
of school are
'persons' under our constitution. ...Students may not be regarded
as closed circuit recipients of only that which
the State wishes to
communicate.
They may not be confined to the expression of
those sentiments
that are officially approved".
In essence Fortas
stated that a student could say whatever they wanted, no matter what it
was. However, The Court acknowledged
that there would be times when expression should be limited; such as if a
student disrupted classwork,
"created
substantial disorder," or infringed on the rights of others. The fact that the administration thought it
might cause a disturbance was not enough.
The court said:
" Any departure from absolute
regimentation may cause trouble. Any variation from the majority's opinion may
inspire fear. Any word spoken, in class in the lunchroom, or on the campus may
start an argument or cause a disturbance. But our Constitution says we must take this risk."
(Pascoe, 98)
Tinker 's opinion stood as a rule until 1983
when Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier
changed academic history again.
Students in Hazelwood wrote
articles on teen pregnancy and divorce in their student newspaper
The Spectrum, and
their principal deleted them because
they were "inappropriate".
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the school because they said the
school shouldn't be required to endorse ideas it considered unsuitable. This decision
gave
administrators the right to censor newspapers, plays and many other
activities. Everything the students
printed was fact and they should be able
to say whatever they want as long as it isn't libelous.
Later in 1986, Bethel School District v.
Matthew Fraser further defined the extent of a student's rights. Fraser made a speech nominating a friend for
student-government and used a few lightly disguised sexual innuendoes.
He was
subsequently suspended for it. The Court
upheld his speech was obscene because of the strong sexual metaphor that
follows:
"I know a man who is firm. He is firm in his pants he is firm in his
shirt, his character is firm-- but most...of
all his belief in you, the students of Bethel, is firm.
Jeff Kuhlman is a man who takes his point and
pounds it in. If necessary he will take an issue and nail it to the wall. He doesn't attack
things in spurts- he drives hard, pushing and pushing
until finally- he succeeds.
Jeff is a man who will go to the very end- even
the climax for each
and every one of you.
So vote for Jeff for A.S.B. vice-president-
he'll never come between you and the
best our high school can be."
This decision
further defined a student's freedom of
speech by stating that a student may not say anything obscene.
The first amendment is the most important one
because, without it there would be no new ideas. It is a shame our country's students must
live under the dictatorship commonly called the "School Board." It is thought that
freedom of speech
would cause anarchy, but in most instances it is perfectly acceptable. Our government needs to revise and outline a
students rights to avoid confusion, and give pupils the rights they deserve.
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