Censorship Issues In High Schools

Issues of censorship in public schools are contests between the exercise of discretion and the exercise of a Constitutional right. The law

Many censorship occurs in schools today. As many are for the censoring of material, many are also against it. Behind each stand, are different opinions and reasons? The reasons to be against

Alexander Tresis (2018) claimed that the courts lacked consistency in protecting the First Amendment rights of students. This is exhibited by the various precedence cases which were confusing, with the courts treating students as citizens with absolute rights of speech to considering them as individuals who were immature and incapable of thinking on their own. Could it be true? If we look at the court decisions from Tinker v. Des Moines, with Tinker winning (7-2), to the Board of Education Island Trees Union Free School District v. Pico, with Pico barely winning (5-4), and finally, to the Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, with the students losing (5-3), some trends could be seen indeed. From Tinker v. Des Moines, the plaintiffs were granted the right to wear armbands as a form of anti-war protest, with the Supreme Court declaring that students do not likely shed their rights upon entering the gates of the school (Shackelford, 2014). However, in the case Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, the Supreme Court ruled that the school principal did not violate the First Amendment rights of the student journalists when he excluded the controversial contents from publishing in the school

School boards often do not adequately justify their reasons for denying High School Students their first amendment rights. Usually, the

Censorship cases often bring about debates over students’ first amendment rights. Students’ first amendment rights are important to preserve so that students can not be excluded from meaningful works or literature. It is understandable for the government to design educational plans as a way to get its voice into classrooms, but “the truth-promoting function of the First Amendment provides no reason, however, to question the right of students to explore a variety of ideas and perspectives, and to form and express ideas of their own” (Brown, 1994, p. 30). Schools already place a restriction on religious material or material addressing current political controversy (Brown, 1994).

Des Moines is an important case for free speech in the United States. It affirms that students don’t lose their rights when they go to school. However, it also affirmed that schools can limit speech that “materially disrupts classwork or involves substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others” (Tinker v. Des Moines, 1969). However, the Court has ruled that there are times that the school can limit speech. In 1986, the Supreme Court ruled in Bethel v. Fraser that students can be disciplined for using vulgar and offensive language in school (Gooden, Eckes, Mead, McNeal, & Torres, 2013, p. 25). This case differed from Tinker v. Des Moines because that case was about political speech or expression. Another example of where school can limit the First Amendment is school sponsored newspapers. This was affirmed by the Court in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1988). That decision stated that schools can reasonably limit the content of school-sponsored newspapers (Gooden, Eckes, Mead, McNeal, & Torres, 2013, p.

Citizens in America are born with a various amount of rights. One of these rights include the freedom of speech and expression. However, school administrators have the ability to restrict a student’s expression. The Supreme Court Cases ‘Bethel School District v. Fraser’ and ‘Frederick V. Morse’ gave schools the right for the administrators to discipline children when they see fit. Students should be able to express themselves in any way without fearing that their school administrators will discipline

The First Amendment gives the citizens of the United States their most important rights: the right to freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion, and the freedom of assembly. Over time these rights have worked themselves into the everyday lives of United States citizens. However, there are still places where our First Amendment rights may be compromised. In the school system, finding a balance of respect and freedom of speech and press is as difficult as learning out to tightrope walk. One wrong step and you could be compromising the learning environment of the entire student body.

Everyone in America should be guaranteed the freedom of speech granted by The Constitution. In 1988, the court ruled in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier that schools \could limit freedom of speech in school if they had “educational concerns” (Jacobs). The problem is that “educational concerns” is too vague and school districts are able to use this as a loophole to get away with removing articles that do not need to be removed. Often, the concern is based on perception and image more than anything else. Angela Riley’s article “20 years later: Teachers reflect on Supreme Court’s Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier ruling” quotes Frank LoMonte, executive director of

They used adequate restraint in their use of examples by withholding the names of the students, as well as using nondescript details that made it easy to determine who the article was talking about. This alone leads to the conclusion that the journalists had no intent to put the students names in print. The journalists were only trying to get information out to students who might be in similar situations. The journalists who wrote these two pages were denied their First Amendment rights under the pretense that the articles “disrupted classwork” and “invaded the rights of others.” This argument is invalid because not only did the journalists omit the names of the students, they did not make it the cover story of their newspaper. It was an article in the middle of the paper, and little attention was drawn to the two pages until it was brought up by the

A group of student created “The Spectrum” and 2 pages of “The Spectrum” contain stories of of divorce and teen pregnancy. These stories were controversial because not everyone had the same opinion about them. Especially the principal who thought the 2 pages of the newspaper was inappropriate so he censored them. This caused outraged because the student thought that the principal’s action violated the 1st Amendment which is their freedom

This isn't the only recent case of student press censorship. Other schools recently affected include Shelton High School, Fauquier High School, and even Lakeview High

As an educator, it is extremely important to know educational policies. On top of the knowledge, it is also imperative to respect the rights granted to students in the democratic society. Attached above is an article, published by the first amendment center, regarding how the first amendment is employed within public schools. The first topic in the article is titled speaking out in school. Here I learned that the school cannot limit the student’s freedom of speech, unless it is hindering the environment to learn, and even then, there is a lot of grey area. Here the school must be able to provide substantial evidence that the student’s writing, speech, or expression would cause great disruption. This also ties directly into school dress code and uniforms required by the school corporation. Students, in many

Censorship in schools violates the first amendment right by limiting the freedom of speech. The first amendment to those that do not know “protects against government restrictions on or interference with the content of speech because of disagreement with its viewpoint. This includes speech in public schools.”(“Schools”). In a recent case where a man is suing schools in county that banned his books and songs he pleads that “not only were his First Amendment rights violated, but also the First Amendment rights of children, teachers, and parents are restricted”(School Bans). This can lead to affecting students education.

Dictatorships and absolutist monarchies have used the same techniques of censorship to prevent their citizens from reaching information for centuries (Christiansen). Today, student administrators similarly prevent students from reading information, but instead of using censorship to hold their power, schools use this technique to maintain students’ innocence and create a wholesome, educational environment. School administrations have the power to ban books from school libraries or require students to have a signed permission form to read a book. Many parents and administrators feel as though this is an acceptable use of power because of the school’s duty to provide students with a safe and appropriate educational environment (McLaughlin). However, librarians, students, and proponents of free speech alike all believe that this censorship is a misuse of power in numerous ways. Advocacy for or against student rights is a debate that has raged for decades within school libraries, journalism classrooms, and English classes and has ultimately split into two belief systems: censorship is an acceptable part of schools, or schools must provide all available information to students. From a moral and practical standpoint, schools have an obligation to make books available because of the violation of student rights, the offensiveness of the challenges, and the dangers of limiting student learning.