CULTURE CLASH (Express Yourself)
Do Students Maintain Freedom of Speech at the Schoolhouse Gate? By Quinn Templewood
IN 1965 IN DES MOINES, IOWA, STUDENTS AT A LOCAL SCHOOL SPORTED ARMBANDS TO PROTEST THE VIETNAM WAR. The immediate response by the school district was to ban the armbands leading to the Supreme Court case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, in which the ruling expressed that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” Although the Court upheld that students are protected under the first amendment, do students really maintain their freedom of speech in schools? As a high school student, I find myself asking this question frequently.
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School districts can stop obscene and disruptive speech or symbolic speech, but only for dress code violations. For example, schools can require students to remove any hat if hats are inconsistent with their dress code; however, if hats are allowed per dress code, they cannot selectively remove a potentially controversial one (e.g., NRA or BLM hat). The ACLU states, referring to students, “You have the right to speak out, hand out flyers and petitions, and wear expressive clothing in school, as long as you don’t disrupt the functioning of the school or violate the school’s content-neutral policies.” They go on to say, “What counts as ‘disruptive’ will vary by context, but a school disagreeing with your position or thinking your speech is controversial or in ‘bad taste’ is not enough to qualify.” By speaking out though, students face repercussions that serve as a form of suppression and a threat to students’ first amendment rights. Although it is not directly banning students’ free speech, it is punishing them for it afterwards. What students say in school, even if it’s not derogatory or directed towards another student, can result in C U LTU R EC L A S H G A LV E STO N . C O M • S E P T/O CT 2 0 2 0
