Freedom of speech

            In class this week we have really been discussing the idea of freedom of speech in school and when it applies. We looked at many different cases and the opinions of the court have been varying. For example in the Tinker v. Des Moines case, John and Mary Beth Tinker want to wear black armbands in school to protest the war. The school doesn’t like that idea and tries to restrict them by not allowing the armbands. In the end though, the court held that the students had the right to wear the armbands. On the other hand, In the Morse v. Frederick case, a student named Joseph Frederick displayed a banner at a school sponsored event saying "Bong Hits 4 Jesus". His principal Deborah Morse demanded that he take it down but he refused so she tore it down. The court held that the principal had a right to rip it down because it promoted illegal drug use in school. I think that students do not truly have freedom of speech in schools. It is the school's job to protect the students and ensure the highest quality of education for them. In order to truly be able to do that they must limit freedom of speech. People are easily offended these days and it's the school's responsibility to make sure that that doesn’t happen. Although I do not believe it is right to not allow students to express their opinions, there has to be a system in place that protects students from being exposed to things that they don’t want to hear or see.

                One problem about identifying whether a student is getting his or her freedom of speech violated is that the law about it is very vague. Many court cases about this topic easily could go both ways depending upon how you argue it. Sometimes students see it as unfair when the school gives them punishments and claim that their freedom of speech was violated. The issue is that only a couple of people (the justices) get to decide whether that is true or not and that doesn’t give fair treatment to everyone who claims this. It just isn’t a fully developed law and there are so many loopholes people can use to get around it and manipulate it. One day at DHS I was wearing a shirt with a picture of a rapper smoking a cigar and I was asked to take it off. I didn't find it fair at all because it’s not like I was supporting tobacco use and I was not being obnoxious about it. I felt like I had gotten my freedom of speech violated but there was nothing I could have done about it unless I wanted to waste time and money taking the school to court. Many instances like this have also flown under the radar. A lot of times when students feel like their rights have been violated, they don't do anything about it and the unfair treatment keeps occurring.

                  The government really needs to establish what rights students have at school. Not everyone is getting the same treatment and that is just unfair to the students. At least if a student's freedom of speech is being restricted, have a law telling them that in order to prepare the student. I just don't like how the law can be so different and it can apply differently just depending upon the case. Freedom of speech in school needs to be addressed and it has to start with the important people in Washington.