Sep
23
Another school free speech case
September 23, 2008 | 3 Comments
A fifth grader was suspended for wearing an anti-Obama tee-shirt after having been warned to take it off or turn it inside-out.
I’m with the school administrators. I follow Clarence Thomas’s line in Morse v. Frederick, aka the Bong Hits 4 Jesus case.
In light of the history of American public education, it cannot seriously be suggested that the First Amendment “freedom of speech” encompasses a student’s right tos peak in public schools. Early public schools gave total control to teachers, who expected obedience and respect from students. And courts routinely deferred to schools’ authority to make rules and to discipline students for violating those rules. Several points are clear: (1) under in loco parentis, speech rules and other school rules were treated identically; (2) the in loco parentis doctrine imposed almost no limits on the types of rules that a school could set while students were in school; and (3) schools and teachers had tremendous discretion in imposing punishments for violations of those rules.
Thomas is right, but he’s sort of by himself in taking such a hard-line stance. Considering the narrowness of the ruling in Morse, I wonder if this kid might might find some sympathetic ears on the Supreme Court.
Comments
3 Comments so far
I’m with the school admin, IF they have a record showing that thy have also asked students to take off anti-Bush and/or anti-McCain shirts. Otherwise, to hell with them.
The era Thomas refers to was one in which teachers fully understood that they were hirelings, answerable to the parents. The present bunch have a propensity for acting like a Priestly Order, dictating to students and parents alike. Foo.
My first reaction to the story was to condemn this as another political infringement case. Then I saw the T-Shirt. Hard to believe that an 11 year old came up with it all by himself. If it were on an adult, I would say the wearer was less making a political statement than intentionally offending others. Not that this is the measure of free speech or anything, but my sympathy for the speaker is inversely proportional to the outrageousness of their conduct.
I’d still be on the admin’s side even if the tee-shirt were a bit more modest, but the extreme nature of the tee-shirt in question definitely doesn’t help the kid’s case.