Hazelwood East High School Case Study

The dissent argues that there should be a limit on expression in school to allow students

If students were shouting and protesting in classrooms, the school would be able to step in because it causes other students to be distracted from their schoolwork.” (CALAGNA)

According to “Freedom of Speech” by Gerald Leinwand, Abraham Lincoln once asked, “Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its people, or too weak to maintain its own existence (7)?” This question is particularly appropriate when considering what is perhaps the most sacred of all our Constitutionally guaranteed rights, freedom of expression. Lincoln knew well the potential dangers of expression, having steered the Union through the bitterly divisive Civil War, but he held the Constitution dear enough to protect its promises whenever possible (8).

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 in policy JI: “Student Rights and Responsibilities.” Part E of this policy deals with students’ freedom of expression. It says that students have freedom of expression so long as it does not “substantially disrupt the operation of the school” (Regional School Unit #40, 2016, “JI”). The use of the term “substantially disrupt” in the policy shows the influence of the Tinker decision on the policies written by the school board.

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.

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

Newspaper reporting is all about finding stories that will appeal to readers. Journalists try to uncover the real situations and problems that affect those readers and write the truth. What if writers were forbidden to write these articles? It may sound like something that could never happen in America, where citizens’ freedom of speech is protected, but the reality is that it is happening. In schools around the country, student newspapers are being censored and their stories yanked out or manipulated to reflect biased opinions. Uncensored journalism in school is necessary because it teaches the First Amendment, it allows kids to fight the wrongs in their world, and it keeps school faculty from having to fight for students’ articles.

In 1969, a group of students filed a lawsuit against their school district claiming that their First Amendment rights were violated because the school district wrote a policy that prohibited them from wearing black armbands in a silent protest of the Vietnam War. Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) ruled that students are entitled to their First Amendment rights as long as they are not causing a disruption to the school environment. This paper outlines the procedure and rulings in the case as well as other legal rulings that have expanded on when censorship of students is protected in public school settings as well as provides a personal reflection on how such matters can impact my future as a school administrator.

Issue: Whether the principal’s censorship of the school paper violated the journalism student’s freedom of speech rights under the First Amendment.

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

In the pursuit of education, students strive to learn and develop their understanding of the world that surrounds them. Accordingly, it is the responsibility of the school administration to provide the means to that end. Yet, there is a polarized divide among schools and their interpretation of freedom of speech. This occurrence is experienced primarily at the university level but can be seen at all levels of education. At the epicenter of this dispute is the notion of censorship, specifically whether or not it is feasible to restrict what can and cannot be said by faculty and students alike. Advocates of freedom of speech assert that censorship violates our First Amendment right, a liberty that is inalienable. Proponents also argue that

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

The subject of student rights has caused a lot of confusion and anger for decades now. There are two different sides that everyone seems to fall into. Some people want the constitutional rights of students to be fully protected within the school. The other side believes that, as a public institution, schools should regulate what is said or done by students to protect everyone involved. This is where it gets confusing, because it is hard to draw the line between what is allowed or not. The three most interesting topics that I chose to cover are a student’s right to free speech, religion within the school and student privacy.

Every student has the right to live each day in school without fear. Bullying, threatening behaviour, racial or sexual harassment and damage to property will not be tolerated.