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Student's Free Speech

In Chapter 12 the authors discuss student's free speech rights and different cases that have occurred surrounding it. The one that I mainly want to focus on is Morse v. Fredrick. In this case a student unfurled a banner across the street from his high school during the Olympic Torch Relay that said 'Bong Rips 4 Jesus'. His principal saw it rushed across the street and tore down the banner and suspended him for 10 days. The Supreme Court upheld this decision claiming that  "schools may take steps to safe-guard those entrusted to their care from speech that can reasonably be regarded as encouraging illegal drug use." (Tedford and Herbeck 324).

I have always had a problem with this case because personally I believe that the banner should have never been torn down. I think Fredrick was within his First Amendment rights to wave whatever banner he wants, especially because the banner wasn't on school property. If Fredrick had hung that banner on a college campus the results of the case might have been drastically different. I personally believe that a high schools jurisdiction should start and end at its campus lines. When I was a senior in high school a case similar to this happened. One of the students in my class posted on Twitter something about drug use, I can't remember exactly what it said but it had to do with marijuana. It was reported to the administrators and he was suspended for two days. Personally, I don't think a high school should have the power to suspend a student for their social media posts as long as they fit within the constraints of the First Amendment. Students should be allowed to express themselves in any way they want away from the school and not face punishment for that.

Tedford, Thomas L., and Dale A. Herbeck. Freedom of Speech in the United States. 8th ed., Strata
Publishing, Inc., 2017.

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 21, 2017 at 7:08 AM


    I think with any freedom of speech case that includes a high school always ends up in the favor of the institution. My high school was similar in this case as well, but more along the lines of online bullying. To some extent I agree with you but when the safety and of other students is in some way compromised, the school has some right to act. I think with any cyber bullying situation it’s safe to say there is some sort of bullying happening on school grounds. The school got involved and the student faced the consequences. Although these two cases have nothing to do with each other I think that the laws that apply within high schools or with the student body are entirely different then college campuses. I agree that some speech should be left protected off of school grounds but some intervention can take place when it comes to the influence speech off school grounds takes on school grounds

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