Student Sues School over Punishment for Wearing "Homosexuality is Shameful" T Shirt

[Blalron]

@Shodan

Part of the problem is that the school is picking and choosing, not simply certain of the rights, but certain of the students, when they abrogate their First Amendment rights.

That is content-based censorship. You can’t say “Students are free under the Constitution to symbolically speak in favor of something” unless they are also free to disagree. Otherwise there is no freedom. It is exactly like saying that the student newspaper is perfectly free to publish whatever they like, providing it supports the war in Iraq. Anything else is supporting terrorism (they could argue), supporting terrorism is hate speech, therefore it must be banned.

Either students are free to speak non-disruptively, or they are not. You may not extend that freedom to those with whom you agree and disallow it when they don’t.

Hate speech is disruptive. It creates an atmosphere of intimidation which interupts the educational process. If I were a gay student sitting behind another student wearing that shirt, I would not be able to concentrate on schoolwork in that class.

The Supreme Court has said “Nothing in the Constitution prohibits the states from insisting that certain modes of expression are inappropriate and subject to sanctions.” BETHEL SCHOOL DIST. NO. 403 v. FRASER

Also “First Amendment rights of students in the public schools are not automatically coextensive with the rights of adults in other settings, and must be applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment. A school need not tolerate student speech that is inconsistent with its basic educational mission, even though the government could not censor similar speech outside the school.” HAZELWOOD SCHOOL DISTRICT v. KUHLMEIER

The school has a legitimate educational purpose in encouraging tolerance and discouraging intolerance towards minority groups.

[MrDibble]

Interesting : from BETHEL SCHOOL DIST. NO. 403 v. FRASER, the majority comment was

@Chief Justice Warren Berger

The undoubted freedom to advocate unpopular and controversial views in schools and classrooms must be balanced against the society’s countervailing interest in teaching students the boundaries of socially appropriate behavior. Even the most heated political discourse in a democratic society requires consideration for the personal sensibilities of the other participants and audiences.

the dissenting opinion notes:

@Justice John Paul Stevens

It does seem to me, however, that if a student is to be punished for using offensive speech, he is entitled to fair notice of the scope of the prohibition and the consequences of its violation.

I think the school dress code counts as fair notice.

So consider this a case of society teaching appropriate behaviour to a student: “insulting minority groups is not OK”

[Ms2001]

Well, the trial is under way.