Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | P | Phi Delta Kappan

Balancing students' constitutional rights: school officials have considerable latitude in maintaining a school environment conducive to learning. But they must also honor students' rights in the process.

Article Excerpt
Students must learn how to become responsible citizens, and few places are more significant in developing those skills of citizenship than the public schools. However, if students are going to learn to become responsible citizens in a democracy, they must be able to exercise their constitutional rights. In its seminal 1969 case on student expression, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, the Supreme Court declared: "Students in school as well as out of school are 'persons' under the Constitution. They are possessed of fundamental rights that the state must respect." (1)

In the last half of the 20th century, this ruling served as the basis for courts when defining and elaborating specific legal rights of students, as well as when balancing those rights with school officials' responsibilities for maintaining an appropriate educational environment.

A few legal issues stand out from others regarding students' constitutional rights. The Supreme Court rulings in these areas have established significant precedents.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Some of the most notable Supreme Court decisions in the last century relating to students' rights involve freedom of expression claims under the First Amendment. Beginning with Tinker in the late 1960s, the Court clearly noted that students' expression in school is protected by the First Amendment as long as the expression does not "materially and substantially" interfere with the operation of the schools. (2) In Tinker, students were suspended from school when they wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. In the absence of disorder in the situation, the Supreme Court ruled that "undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right of freedom of expression." (3) However, this ruling does not prevent educators from acting when they can reasonably forecast that a particular student expression will be disruptive or pose a danger in the school. In fact, courts over the years have upheld restrictions on a wide range of behaviors when those behaviors threatened to disrupt education (e.g., threatening written and oral remarks, inappropriate t-shirts, display of disruptive symbols, and boycotts and walkouts).

Two Supreme Court decisions in the 1980s gave school officials broader leeway to limit student expression on the school campus. First, in a 1986 decision, Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser, the Supreme Court ruled that officials can censor lewd, vulgar, and indecent speech. (4) The student, Fraser, had used a sexual metaphor in his nomination speech for a classmate during a school assembly. Both students and teachers were embarrassed and offended by Fraser's obscene language. According to the Court, the First Amendment does...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!