Rights of Students and First Amendment

Rights of Students and First Amendment

Introduction

The First Amendment of the United States explains diverse concepts and topics. One of the main concepts is the provision of freedom of speech. Originally, the first amendment was only considered legal under the regions represented by the Congress, but later the Supreme Court ordered that the amendment should be made applicable throughout the United States. The court has to consider a number of exceptions in order to protect the freedom of speech. This freedom of speech is applicable on different types of speeches. They include; speeches critical of the government, political speech, commercial speech and school speech. The school speech defines the right of freedom of speeches at school level.

First Amendment State Law

The first amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” The amendment provides the citizens the ability to speak, write and worship freely avoiding the fear of government.

Historical Perspective

The rights of students were made revised in the first amendment after an incident which occurred in the year 1965. Two Tinker siblings of Des Moines, Iowa John and Mary along with their friend Christopher chose to wear black arm bands in protest of the ongoing Vietnam War and in support of the Christmas Truce made by the Senator Robert Kennedy. There was a policy made by principals of the schools of the city to ban the wearing of arm bands to school. The students who found guilty would be suspended and could only return if they would agree to the policy. Thus, the three of them were found guilty of violating the policy, and were made suspended till 1st January, 1966 (Heder, 1999). The case was not filed in any of the courts until the Iowa Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) came up to their family for support. The ACLU decided to help the families in the case. As a result of their support, both the families agreed to file the case in the US District Court. The court upheld the decision; therefore, the case was then taken to the Supreme Court of the US in the year 1968.

Rights of Students and First Amendment

Student Publications and Freedom of Expression

Does the free speech right given by the first amendment allow students the right to speak or write something that is controversial? The answer to this question given by the Supreme Court is no.

Legal Case Precedent

There was an incident in 1983 when a school principal of St. Louis removed two articles from the high school newspaper in which students described their experiences of divorce and pregnancy. The Supreme Court in reaction said that the school principal has not violated the first amendment because there is a difference between a newspaper and a public forum. The court declared that the reason was solid ...