Part 3 of 3
It’s that time of year when we hear a lot about Supreme Court cases, and that got me thinking about my favorite court cases to talk about in my Teacher Pathway classes not only because they made a huge impression at the time of their decisions but also because they significantly impact our schools and courts’ decisions to this day.
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)
The Vietnam War brought out strong emotions and divisions in Americans, and K-12 public schools were not immune to warring opinions. When five students from Des Moines’s Roosevelt High School, North High School, and Harding Junior High wore black armbands to school in protest of the Vietnam War, this lawsuit that defined students’ rights to free speech was born.
Schools pass many policies in order to create safe and focused learning environments, and in that spirit, the Des Moines schools had recently made a rule prohibiting armbands. As a result of breaking their school’s rule, the five students were suspended. In 1966, three of the students and their parents brought the issue to the courts, and in 1969 the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that students and teachers retain their right to free speech while in school (Iowa PBS). Nevertheless, school authorities retain their responsibility and right to maintain order and eliminate substantial disruptions from learning, and to this day, what is and is not a substantial disruption to a school’s captive audience continues to be debated, especially with regard to social media, dress, and protest.
For example, a student free speech case was decided on by lower courts in Boston already this summer when a three-judge panel agreed with school administrators that middle schooler Liam Morrison can not wear a shirt that says “There Are Only Two Genders” to school because it presents a substantial disruption, especially to the school’s transgender students who are a captive audience in the classroom.
