Board Of Education Vs Pico Case Study

The decision in this case seems to have left public school students’ free speech rights in an ambiguous state. The Justices in support of the majority opinion—Justices Thomas, Alito, Kennedy, and Scalia—were thus

First, the court had to determine if the constitutional right to freedom of speech applied to students at school. Secondly, the court had to determine if the students had actually demonstrated speech. Lastly, the court had to determine to what degree did the school extinguish the students’ speech in conjunction with school’s expectations. In 1969, in a 7-2 majority vote in favor of Tinker (students), the United States Supreme Court ruled, “It can hardly be argued,” declared the Court, “that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression at the schoolhouse gate” (Imber et al p83).

The controversial act of banning books in the public school system is hindering children from growing in their intellect and identity. “Schools and Censorship: Banned Books” is an article released by People For the American Way, which explains that American’s were given one basic right and it is one that must be fought for and maintained daily. This is the freedom to express as each individual sees fit. Because of concepts that challenge the level of what is “appropriate” for students, millions are being deprived of powerful works of expression which possess the power to shape students in who they are and who they can become.

Once upon a time, in a world not far from here, there are students who are forced to miss their annual train ride to Hogwarts, lock the wardrobe to the magical land of Narnia, and walk through the English countryside themselves instead of upon the back of Black Beauty. Why are these students deprived of those occurrences? They live in America, the land of the free- except when it comes to the books they can read. In fact, many schools across America exercise the practice of banning books. Since 1982, libraries, parents, and schools have attempted to ban 11,300 novels, according to the American Library Association. The essentially innoxious books are challenged for an assortment of reasons, including use of malapropos language, graphic or explicit

“Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist.” Cornell University Law School. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Cornell University Law School. Web. 3 Feb. 2016. .

According to the American Library Association, the most common group of people, challenging a book being read in schools, was the parents of the students. Parents have a right to be in charge of what is put into the minds of their students, however just because one parent objects does not mean that the whole school should ban the book from the list. A solution for this book would be to enforce parental consent for books to be read in the classroom. If a parent does not want a book to be read in the classroom, then there should be other options for the student to read. The school and teacher should not trespass on a parent’s rights of raising their child. I believe that if a parent has a concern, they should go and discuss the problem with the teacher so that the teacher will be able to defend their reasoning for choosing the book to be read in the classroom.

School boards, principals, and teachers have a responsibility for protecting the minds of their students by covering grade and age appropriate material in the classroom. However, does this given responsibility cover the act of banning books from their classrooms? As an advocate for each student, does the teacher not have a duty to introduce the students to a these words issues in order to help the student cope with the different problems in the world? How does a school decide which books should be banned and how much say does the teacher have what should be left up to the teacher? Some say that banning books from the classroom, we prevent them from learning about different controversial topics in a safe and secure environment. In this paper I reflect on my research question: Why do schools ban books in the classroom?

Citation: Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education et al v. Fred Doyle (1977)

Each year, scores of books are challenged and removed from schools and libraries across the United States. Most challenges are brought about by single individuals, or a small group of people, though usually for different reasons. It is inferred that most of these challenges occur when parents of children object to a novel’s use of foul language, appear to discredit individual family values, or portray adolescent characters in sexual situations. Whatever the reasons may be, we must remember that the decision to ban a book from school libraries does not affect only the adolescents of the parents who challenge any given novel, but also affects those adolescents whose parents do not object to its content or in fact see merit in the controversial

Ironically, one of the next landmark cases regarding this debate was decided in a second circuit court, not the Supreme Court. In 1979, students were apprehended by their school for publishing a satirical newspaper publication about teachers and other peers including articles regarding prostitution and masturbation. The preponderance of the student’s writing was done off campus without disruption, which would play a key role in the decision of the ruling. The parents of the children sued the school district in the case Thomas v. Board of Education Granville Central School District as they believed that the student’s 1st amendment rights were being violated by the school district. As the court analyzed both sides of the debate, they

“Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech…”U.S. Const. Amend. I. “The Fourteenth Amendment, as now applied to the States, protects the citizen against the State itself and all of its creatures-Board of Education’s not accepted.” Tinker v. Des Moines Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 578 (1969). “First Amendment rights, applied in light if the special characteristics of the school environment, are available to teachers and students. It can hardly be argued that both students and teacher shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” Id. “… the constitutional rights of students in public school; are not automatically coextensive with the rights of adults in other settings…” Morse v. Frederick, 551 U.S. 939, 582 (2007).

vs. Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26, which was the

There has recently been a renewed interest and passion in the issue of censorship. In the realm of the censorship of books in schools alone, several hundred cases have surfaced each year for nearly the past decade. Controversies over which books to include in the high school English curriculum present a clash of values between teachers, school systems, and parents over what is appropriate for and meaningful to students. It is important to strike a balance between English that is meaningful to students by relating to their lives and representing diversity and satisfying worries about the appropriateness of what is read. This burden often falls on teachers. The purpose of this research paper is to discuss

In conclusion, library censorship is one of the worst things that could happen to our beautiful country, because it shields the youth from our history, keeps close minded individuals in charge, and it keeps information about damming organizations a secret. Instead of censoring libraries, the books could be segregated and not removed

libraries in public schools gets attention of censorship because of under pressure from parents and community groups to remove certain books from their libraries, such as William Golding's The Lord of the Flies, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, Harper Lee's To