9/2/2011 Reaction to Students Free Speech Rights

This week in our issues class we studied several Supreme Court cases that regarded the free speech rights of students on school grounds, or during school sponsored events. We studied the tinker case which involved high school students who wanted to wear black arm bands to protest the Vietnam War. The court ruled in favor of the Tinkers, as long as their protest did not encourage violence or start any violence. We also studied the Morse v. Frederick case, when a student was surrounded by school students and faculty, to watch the running of the Olympic torch in Juneau Alaska. Frederick (the student) raised a sign the read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus". The court ruled that the freedom of speech did not protect Frederick’s actions on school grounds, or a school sponsored event. One of the school's missions is to discourage drug use, and when Frederick was surrounded by his fellow students it could reasonably be inferred that he was promoting the use of drugs.

These cases were much more than a simple debate about freedom of speech. The fact that both of these took place under school supervision shed a new light onto the issue of freedom of speech. I believe that so far the court’s rulings have been far and their reasoning’s for these rulings are just and sensible. I believe that there should be some restraints on this first amendment right when entering a school. The schools job is the shape the young and impressionable minds of American society. They are supposed to not only provide the academic knowledge that is required for students to succeed in high school, college, and in their jobs. They also instill the morals of American society into the youth. The use of drugs in the United States is illegal. If drugs are being promoted under school supervision, then that is contradicting the schools mission.

In the Tinker case I believe the court’s ruling was just as well, because the students were not promoting anything illegal, they were merely exercising their freedom of speech, without interfering with the school's mission. If another student that was supporting the Vietnam War wanted to wear a button or something else to support the war he could certainly do so, as long as the protests did not lead to violence, the students were correctly exercising their freedom of speech.

A student’s freedom of speech is more restrictive than that of an adult but it is necessary for the school to succeed its mission of instilling American morals within its students. Between these two cases the Supreme Court was able to find a balance between being restrictive and not too restrictive when it comes to a student’s freedom of speech.