40th Anniversary of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community
School District
The Student Press Law Center and high school students
across the country celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the landmark
Supreme Court decision Tinker v. Des Moines, which maintains student's
do not shed their rights at the schoolhouse gate.
Complex question - we have to start by asking, "what is free speech?"
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution boldly 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.
Strong language - clearly the intention of the nation's founders were to
assume that speech is protected. However, this protection is not
absolute. As a nation, there are many different interests and
rights that need to be protected.
What happens when someone's speech creates problems for others.
What happens when someone's speech is in conflict with other public
interests? Are their situations where the rights of the nation, as
a whole, override any one person's rights to express themselves?
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has ruled that our
interests as a nation are more important than the interests of any one
of us. Most of us would agree, there are times when what one
person might way could be very harmful to others.
The SCOTUS has created some guidelines to help fairly try to balance the
rights of individuals and the rights of society. Here are some
issues that courts recognize when looking at limits
of free speech:
Clear and Present Danger.
Some things are just not safe and it is fairly easy to see
that they create dangerous situations. The First
Amendment does not protect speech that incites violence or
illegal actions.
Fighting Words.
Likewise, the First Amendment does not apply to statements
that, when made directly to a person's face, are likely to be
so upsetting that they will physically strike back.
Libel and Slander.
The first Amendment does not protect false or misleading
statements about others. Lies that damage another
person's reputation are not protected by our Constitution.
Obscenity. In
Miller v California (1978)
the SCOTUS created a 3-part test to determine if speech is
"obscene" and not protected or "indecent" but protected for
adults but not for children.
Conflict with Other Legitimate Social or Governmental
Interests. We can imagine any number of situations when
one person's speech may harm others. For example, in
times of war, speech has been restricted. Courts also
allow "gag orders" that prevent participants in trials from
talking. It is hard to point to one case that
establishes the test for compelling interests. One
important case is
Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart.
Time, Place, and Manner.
Sometimes, speech is protected, but not the way it is being
distributed. The SCOTUS has determined that some
protected speech is not protected when the time, location, or
method of distribution interferes with a legitimate government
interest. For example, we do not have the right to use
excessive noise levels that create disturbances. We
cannot create traffic jams because of the way we choose to
express protected speech.
When thinking about First Amendment Protection and schools, it is
probably best to think of different perspectives. How would each
of these groups people view these issues?
Students. Being able to express yourself is
important. We all have opinions and feelings about what
is happening. Talking about them can be helpful.
Isn't a good education all about having a free dialog about
learning.
Parents. We all love and care about our
children. We want good things for them. We want to
help them avoid problems. We want to share our
experience, strength, and hope. As we get older, many
decide that some battles are not worth fighting and that some
things are better left unsaid.
School Administrators. Being responsible for
the welfare, education, and safety for hundreds of people is
not easy. Looking out for everyone means creating an
understanding of how we respect others and get along.
Those that are responsible for dealing with bad situations
that happen in school quickly learn that many problems are
easier to avoid than solve.
Other School Stakeholders. Everyone one in a
community and all taxpayers at all levels have an interest in
schools. There are many different opinions,
perspectives, and philosophies on life. Schools need to
find ways to create and maintain support of the folks that
live in communities and pay taxes to support schools.
There are many different interests here - how do we best
balance them all?
We all have a right to opinions on free speech in schools. Being
able to persuade others to agree with us demands that we understand the
issues. This will take some research. It will also require
us to carefully choose our resources. This means we will have to
carefully think about how we will locate and evaluate information.
Here's a short video to demonstrate BadgerLink, a
wonderful collection of online resources that
provides access to quality online information for
Wisconsin residents, schools, and libraries.
Subject Heading Searches
Professional researchers know that the fastest way to
find information is to understand how people have organized it. Finding
good resources is easy when we understand the difference between SUBJECT
HEADINGS and KEYWORD searches.
Evaluating Information
Using digital search tools and the Internet to find
information is fun and easy. Access to different resources is valuable.
However, easy access means evaluating what we find is important. Let's
look at how to help choose the best information available.
Meet Rappin' Melvil Dewey
Sit back and enjoy ScooterStories' Dewey Decimal Rap and
then we will review the 10 basic number categories that Melvil Dewey
created to organize information in libraries.
Dewey Bears
Join Bogey Bear and Fuzby as they talk about getting
started with Dewey Decimal Numbers - Melvil Dewey's system for
organizing nonfiction books in the library. Dewey Decimal numbers are
used in libraries all around the world!
Subject headings are terms that librarians and information specialists
use to make connections between different resources. Want to make
finding resources easy? Learn what subject headings are used by
librarians and databases to organize information. There are 2 sets
that are generally used:
Library of Congress Subject Headings. The
largest library in the world is the library of congress -
virtually any published book is there. Such a large
collection has to be organized with very precise, specific
subject headings, the Library of Congress (LOC) Subject
Headings. These are used
in most databases, like EbscoHost and ProQuest.
Even when using precise LOC subject headings, when
searching databases and large libraries, we need to find ways
to limit the number of results we find. Simple (or
basic) searches may generate hundreds or even thousands of
results - far too many to be useful.
Using advanced search strategies (look for links that say
"advanced search" or "refine your search) will save you time
and help you find better stuff. Try using 2 or more
subject headings, linking them together in your search with
AND.
These are the LC subject heading terms that will be most
helpful when looking at First Amendment issues in schools:
Freedom of speech AND students
Freedom of speech AND public schools
Students -- civil rights
Students -- civil rights AND Freedom of speech
Sears Subject Headings. Our school library
and many public libraries use subject head that come from the
book, Sears List of Subject Headings. They
are less specific than ibrary of Congress which makes them
more useful in smaller libraries. They are used because
LOC can be so specific that finding related resources is
difficult in a smaller collection.
Large large libraries and
databases probably don't use the Sears Subject Headings - be
sure to ask if you are not sure. You still might want to
try advanced search strategies, but they are often not needed.
Because Sears Subject Headings are not as precise as LOC
Expression Rights of Students:
3 Supreme Court Cases - Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School
District, 1969; Bethel School District, No. 403 v. Fraser, 1986; and
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 1988
Public School Student Speech Rights in the U.S.
Supreme Court (2 pages): 4 Supreme Court Cases -
Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, 1969; Bethel School
District, No. 403 v. Fraser, 1986; Hazelwood School District v.
Kuhlmeier, 1988; and Morse v. Frederick, 2007
