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student speech

Author recounts 60s battle for free expression in high school

donal brown August 25, 2011

Author Mike Marqusee clashed with administrators at Scarsdale High School in New York in 1968 first over a request to register the radical Students for a Democratic Society as a club and later over student-initiated teacher evaluation forms. He was suspended from school for distributing the forms. Marqusee says freedom of expression in schools allows students to consider social issues and develop critical abilities vital to functioning in a democracy. He says, “In schools, free

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Minnesota court invokes Tinker in upholding punishment of student for off-campus speech

donal brown July 18, 2011

In one of the first cases concerning off-campus speech of college students, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled that the University of Minnesota was justified in disciplining a former student in the mortuary program for her Facebooks posts in 2009. The university claimed the student violated the student code of conduct and gave her a failing grade in her anatomy-laboratory class and put her on academic probation for the rest of her undergraduate years. In

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New York: Student speech rights set back by federal appeals court ruling against high school blogger

donal brown April 26, 2011

A New York federal appeals court delivered a double whammy to student free speech rights in ruling that a high school administration could punish Avery Doninger for statements in her off-campus blog and subsequently for wearing a “Team Avery” T-shirt at a school assembly to protest the earlier punishment. The ruling focused on the issue of “qualified immunity”, that government officials cannot be held liable for damages even if they violate the law if the

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Washington: High school student suspended for abandoning school-approved speech

donal brown February 15, 2011

A high school sophomore from Edmonds, Washington, running for student government, was suspended for a day and a half after he substituted his own speech for a school-approved one. The student had urged students to boycott the election since student government officers were puppets of the teachers and had no real power. The boy’s mother is appealing the suspension to the school board on the grounds that the speech created no disruption at the school.

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Hazelwood applied to college nursing student’s criticism of classroom practices

donal brown February 15, 2011

A federal judge applied Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier to a free speech case at the university level much to the dismay of First Amendment advocates. The judge upheld the dismissal of a nursing student at Auburn University at Montgomery for criticizing the nursing school’s disciplinary system. The judge later reconsidered her decision, modifying it to protect criticism of school curriculum and narrowing in on the disruption caused by directly talking back to an instructor during class.

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