The Lynn (Mass.) Daily Item reports: A Lynn English High School student reprimanded for wearing a t-shirt which read “All the cool girls are lesbians,” set off a debate during Thursday’s School Committee meeting on the school dress code and how it is enforced…. Kennedy told committee members Thursday that she received a letter from […]
Archive | Freedom of Speech at K-12 Schools
Viewpoint Discrimination in K-12 School Library Filtering
By Eugene Volokh on February 16, 2012 5:21 pm in Cyberspace Law, Freedom of Speech at K-12 Schools, Freedom to Gather Information, Gay Rights, Sexual Orientation
As I’ve said before, the Supreme Court has never decided whether K-12 schools may remove books from school libraries based on their viewpoints, or may filter out Web sites based on their viewpoints. The Court’s cases dealing with this question, Board of Ed. v. Pico and U.S. v. American Library Ass’n were badly splintered and […]
FCC Standards Come to Arizona Classrooms
By Eugene Volokh on February 15, 2012 5:58 pm in Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Freedom of Speech at K-12 Schools
Here’s a bill currently being considered by the Arizona Legislature: A. If a person who provides classroom instruction in a public school engages in speech or conduct that would violate the standards adopted by the federal communications commission concerning obscenity, indecency and profanity if that speech or conduct were broadcast on television or radio: 1. […]
Article in High School Newspaper Criticizing Homosexuality = “Bullying”?
The Shawano High School newspaper decided to run dueling student opinion pieces on whether same-sex couples should be able to adopt children; the student article that answered the question “no” said, among other things, quotes Leviticus 20:13 (“If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both […]
Not Safe to Display an American Flag in an American High School
By Eugene Volokh on November 10, 2011 9:46 am in Freedom of Speech at K-12 Schools, Freedom of Speech Restricted by Thugs
Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified School District (N.D. Cal.), decided the day before yesterday, upholds a California high school’s decision to forbid students from wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo. (See here and here for more on this case.) The decision might well be correct under Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School […]
“Islam Is of the Devil” T-Shirts in Junior High School and High School
Sapp v. School Board of Alachua County (N.D. Fla. Sept, 30, 2011), which was just made available on Westlaw today, holds that (1) a public school properly restricted the wearing of “Islam is of the Devil” T-shirts because they led to substantial disruption, and (2) the school’s broader policy banning “clothing or accessories that … […]
The First Amendment and the Government as K-12 Educator
Since First Amendment controversies involving the government as K-12 educator often come up on the blog, I thought I’d summarize the Supreme Court’s precedents on the subject: 1. The government acting as K-12 educator (i.e., kindergarten through 12th grade) may restrict speech if it a. “materially and substantially interfere[s] with the requirements of appropriate discipline […]
D.C. Council Considering Requiring Speech Code in City Parks and the University of District Columbia
By Eugene Volokh on October 31, 2011 3:18 pm in "Hate Speech", Freedom of Speech at Colleges and Universities, Freedom of Speech at K-12 Schools
The proposed law would mandate that public and charter schools, city parks, city libraries, and the University of District Columbia ban any gesture or written, verbal or physical act, including electronic communication, that is reasonably perceived as being motivated either by any actual or perceived characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, […]
David Hudson, Guest-Blogging
I’m delighted to report that David Hudson, of the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt, will be guest-blogging this coming week about his new book, Let the Students Speak!: A History of the Fight for Free Expression in American Schools. The title is largely self-explanatory — the book talks both about the leading Supreme […]
Discrimination Against Student Religious Speech
By Eugene Volokh on August 18, 2011 6:07 pm in Freedom of Speech at K-12 Schools, Religion and the Law
Schools, including K-12 schools, generally can’t discriminate against religious speech by students, outside the school curriculum (such as class assignments) or school-organized programs (such as graduations). If they allow extracurricular nonreligious clubs to form, they must let religious clubs form. If they allow nonreligious flyers to be distributed, they must allow religious flyers to be […]
“Not Much Good Takes Place at Slumber Parties for High School Kids, and This Case Proves the Point”
So begins T.V. v. Smith-Green Community School Corp. (N.D. Ind. Aug. 10), which (1) holds that a high school violated plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights when it suspended them from the volleyball team because they had posted a raunchy video of themselves on the Internet, and (2) holds that the school’s code of conduct allowing suspensions […]
Court Upholds Discipline of University Student Based on Speech, Citing Tinker
The case is Tatro v. University of Minnesota, decided today by the Minnesota Court of Appeals. I can understand how the decision would be appealing on its facts, but the logic of the case strikes me as quite dangerous. Amanda Tatro is a student in the mortuary-science program at respondent University of Minnesota. The program […]
Third Circuit (En Banc) Opines on K-12 Students’ Off-Campus Speech Rights
The long-awaited decisions are J.S. v. Blue Mountain School Dist. (decided by an 8-to-6 vote) and Layshock v. Hermitage School Dist. (unanimous); both were just handed down this morning. Here’s a quick summary, though the opinions are long and complicated, so my quick summary must necessarily omit many important details. 1. To begin with, here’s […]
First Amendment and Proposed Restrictions on Bullying (and Cyber-Bullying) of K-12 Students
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held a briefing last Friday on bullying (and cyber-bullying) of K-12 students; there were many people speaking about various aspects of this question, and in particular about whether and to what extent the federal government should get involved. I spoke about the First Amendment issues created by broad “anti-bullying” […]
The Case of the Cheerleader, the Alleged Rapist, and the First Amendment
I’ve heard quite a bit in the last few days about Doe v. Silsbee Indep. School Dist., the case in which a high school cheerleader was allegedly raped by a football and basketball player from the same high school, refused to cheer for him when he was playing, was kicked off the squad, and sued […]