Y&M - Student Rights

Photo: Barbara A. Bloom

High School Students' Rights

The following is from an article in the October 2000 Y&M Magazine. A print version is also available.

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Supreme Court Rulings

Two important court rulings are significant for students:

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District (1969): In 1965, Des Moines (Iowa) schools suspended two teenagers for wearing black armbands to protest the war in Vietnam. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Court ruled that in public schools, which are run by the government, students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." It said that schools could only limit students' freedom of expression if their writings or behaviors were very disruptive to the functioning of school or invaded the rights of others.

Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988): A Missouri school censored articles in the school newspaper about teen pregnancy and the effects of divorce on children. In this Supreme Court case, the decision allowed public school administrators to censor student work in the school-sponsored newspaper because the issues were considered controversial. In effect, the court ruled that censorship can occur when the material is not in a public forum.

Schools may be able to censor school publications or activities like radio programs, newspapers, plays, or art exhibits. But, they cannot censor underground newspapers or other forms of expression.

The Hazelwood ruling may seem to contradict the earlier ruling in the Tinker case and in some ways it does. But it is also different. In this case, the school officially sponsored and supported the publication. And, in instances like this, the school must demonstrate some educational reason for censoring. This ruling has often been broadly interpreted. It is unclear how this ruling applies to extracurricular activities.

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