On Your Own; Your Legal Right @ Eighteen On Your Own formatted final version | Page 5

CIVIC MATTERS
RIGHTS TO FREE SPEECH
The First Amendment of the US Constitution states that “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 redress of grievances.” The free speech clause protects
individuals from government censorship of many types of expression.
Because public schools are government entities, you have a right to free
speech and symbolic expression if you are attending a public school. That
right is not absolute, however, and US courts have grappled with
determining exactly when and how public school administrators may
regulate student speech.
The US Supreme Court has considered a variety of factors in determining
what kind of speech is protected in public schools, including content,
disruptiveness, vulgarity, potential for the perception of school
endorsement of content, and the school’s educational mission. You do
not lose your “constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at
the schoolhouse gate,” Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393
U.S. 503, 506, (1969), nevertheless, these protections are generally
weaker when you are in school than if you were on a public street corner.
Bethel Sch. Dist. v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675, 688 (1986).
In general, political or religious speech is protected in public schools. For
example, the US Supreme Court ruled that a public high school could not
punish students for wearing black arm-bands in school to protest the
Vietnam War. Tinker, 393 U.S. 503.
In public high school, administrators may prohibit speech that is
“offensive” or “indecent,” even if not obscene. For example, the Supreme
Court allowed a principal to discipline a student for “lewd” language used
as part of an ongoing sexual innuendo during a student-election campaign
speech. Bethel Sch. Dist. v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986). Other types of
speech, such as a clearly visible banner at a school event reading “BONG
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