Freedom of Speech in Public Schools

The First Amendment states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” However, there are certain instances where our speech is limited. For example, we can’t yell fire in a crowded theater or scream bomb on a plane. More importantly however, we give some of our First Amendment rights away when we go to school. Students have to respect the public institution’s code of limiting speech. Although there are a number of scenarios where public school’s have the right to censorship, there are a couple of cases where the censorship proves to be unfair and unjust. The case Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, is a specific example of how the school, and in this instance, the Courts, overextend the policies of censorship. The undeserved ruling on the case creates a chilling effect on the school, restricting students from openly discussing issues of different sorts. Although public schools are allowed to censor speech when it threatens the safety of the student body, the censorship should not inhibit students from having healthy conversation and discussion.

The dispute began when an issue of the Hazelwood East High School’s newspaper, the Spectrum released an article about teen pregnancy and the effect of divorce on students. The principle of the school believed that the articles were too controversial for the students. The journalists of the publications took their case to the Supreme Court, arguing that their First Amendment rights were violated. However, the Supreme Court reversed the appellate court's decision because “students' comments in the article, concerning their sexual histories and their use or nonuse of birth control, are inappropriate in a school-sponsored publication distributed to 14-year-old freshmen and presumably taken home...