School Journalism And The First Amendment

The First Amendment is designed to protect all citizens by giving them the right to express themselves in different ways. In doing so, we still have to be careful on how we do it. Students have the right to express themselves as long as it does not cause any disruption. In my school district, we abides by the First Amendment by not forbidding all mention of religion in the school system (Pamlico County Board of Education, 2015). The only part that is prohibited is the advancement or inhibition of religion (Pamlico County Board of Education, 2015). My school district feels that there’s nothing unconstitutional about using religious subjects or materials as long as it is in compliance to the neutrality of the education program (Pamlico County Board of Education, 2015).

What is the age that a person should be able to claim rights under the first amendment? The first thing would come to most people's mind is eighteen. However, upon examination, someone could easily justify that a sixteen year old who is in his or her second year of college would have the ability to form an opinion and should be allowed to express it. What makes this student different from another student who, at sixteen, drops out of school and gets a job, or a student who decides to wear a shirt that says "PRO-CHOICE" on it? While these students differ in many aspects such as education level, their opinion can equally be silenced under the first amendment. One of the most blatant abuses of the first amendment right to free speech is

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

Should a school be able to censor their students? This question has reached the supreme court multiple times, such as in this case, or in Tinker vs. Des Moines. While restricting a freedom may be annoying, it can be necessary, but when is it dictatorship, and when is it necessary? That is what is questioned in this court case. The U.S. Supreme Court had a difficult decision in the court case of Hazelwood vs. Kuhlmeier, and they were right in their ruling, because even though censorship is often overused, in the classroom, it is often needed, and though the fear of a dictatorship in any place is often scary, it is needed in a classroom full of rowdy minors, even in my experience many of my classmates have inappropriate outbursts.

I further believe that in order to teach children, school districts need a certain amount of authority and structure to keep students safe and effectively teach them. School districts need to provide a positive learning environments that includes free speech for both students and teachers for optimum learning. However, I have concerns that school regulations could have far reaching affects not originally intended and when school's regulations are not applied equitably. I agree with the Supreme Court's descending decision in this case and the District Court's decision that the action of the school authorities was reasonable.

A public school in New York during the start of each school day started with the Pledge of Allegiance and followed by a nondenominational prayer. The New York state law also allowed students to skip the prayer if found offensive. A parent of a student attending this school sued deeming the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Supreme Courts majority rule (8-1) claimed YES the public school sponsored prayer violates Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, even with allowing students to skip the prayer, it was still considered unconstitutional. This case is important because Chief Justice, Earl Warren states that school sanctioned prayers, including any type of public promotion of religion, violates the Establishment

As the First Amendment protects the freedom of speech to all Americans, there needs to be some sort of limit on when students go overboard. There are many different types of speech in which it can cause disruptions in the classroom when teachers and students state their own opinions that don’t always go with what the others agree with. Things such as the place of where they speak these things are affective to whether their claims are legal or illegal on any school campus. When students cause a disruption, even across the street from a school supervised event while promoting illegal drug use like Joseph Frederick did, it needs to be stopped as soon as possible whether it goes against the freedom of a student's speech or not.

In the well-known case of of Tinker Verses Des Moines Independent Community School District, the Supreme Court remarked, “it can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” While shedding your thoughts and freedom of speech or expression at “the schoolhouse gate” can be difficult, the district did have the right to not renew the teacher’s contract. I think that it is important to keep my mind what the judge stated in the facts above, “teachers … do not have a right under the First Amendment to express their opinions with their students during the instructional period.” The teacher gave her opinion and an idea of her political view by stating

The first amendment of the constitution is our right to our own opinion. It is a right everyone is born with and everyone has; there are no defects. At Acton Academy we cannot and will not ban our right to our own opinion. Some of you are probably thinking “What is he talking about?” In the session before this one we made a very big mistake. We took a vote on whether we should be allowed to cuss in the Middle School. It went through and from then on we were not allowed to say any words deemed offensive. At that point it seemed harmless and nobody cared, but now I realize that it wasn’t about the cussing part, it was about protecting our right to our opinion. If I could go back in time I would have testified against it.

The court held that the 1st Amendment didn’t require schools to promote particular types of student speech. They held that high schools must set certain standards regarding speech and the school retained the right to refuse to sponsor speech that was considered inconsistent within the shared values of a civilized social order. They also said that editorial control over the content of speech is allowed if the school has a legitimate pedagogical concern for it.

Growing up in public schools, I remember my 2 grade teacher Ms. Rosa will always tell us “Siempre tiene una voz, nunca se dejan que alguien le digan que aser, es nuestro derecho como gente que viven en los Estados Unidos. ” I can safely say that the I learn of the first amendment, through my early school path,I always said what I felt and never feared of being silenced. When I heard about the Tucson Unified school district situation, I felt that it was a straight fuck you to our rights. When a state decides to take action against our own history and tells us what we can or can’t learn is a violation of our first right. The first Amendment should be shown at its maximum in public schools, since limiting what type of books to read is creating a iron wall in our public schools. When I say Iron wall, it reminds me on how the state is trying to create a concentration camp with our education, limiting the things we can learn. Additionally, I feel that teachers should have the right to speak out on what really happen to our ancestors

The right to express ones opinions without censorship or restraint can be considered as a basic provision enshrined in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. To elaborate, the first amendment to the constitution prohibit the legislative arm of government in making of any law abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press and prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievances. Post this amendment, there have been several cases where the Supreme Court has been required to interpret or make a decision to uphold its provisions. One of such landmark cases is the Hazelwood School District vs Kuhlmeier. The case involved two articles that were refused publication by a principal in a student newspaper. One of the articles dealt with the experience of students whose parents are divorce and the other with teenage pregnancy.

I Support the majority opinion of the Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier. This case was based on school newspapers I believe students should be allowed it gives them a chance to express they talent though the press. No one can take freedom of the press away it one of our amendment. The principal didn’t have the right to cut off part of the article. The only time he had the right if it was Violate words. Also if the articles are related to the school or reasonably things the students have a right. Students have the right to show how they feel about things going on in their surroundings. If you ask them their opinion why cut off the answer you ask for.

At school, students have the right to freedom of speech. Some students do not realize that as a student, we cannot say everything that we think we can. At Hazelwood High School, a student had put some articles in their school newspaper that the administrators thought that the articles were not appropriate for a school newspaper. With that in thought, the administrator, which was the school principal, deleted the articles that was not just the two offensive articles but everything on the two pages that were deleted. That in return made many students angry at their principal for taking their freedom which is stated in the First Amendment. However, when this went to the Supreme Court, they agreed with the school, saying that it was part of the school’s curriculum so there for the school can edit and take out anything that they feel is unnecessary. Later the Court went and said that public

Should students' rights to free speech and expression be limited in schools? This question has been faught over by public and private schools for a long time. Many dont think it would be safe to let kids have full rights to speech anf expression. many also think kids would miss use this right. Others think they should be given full rights because they deserve thier first ammendment. Many schools are afraid it would take away the schools orderly envioment.