Freedom of Speech at School: Tinker v. Des Moines

Posted March 4, 2011 in Landmark Court Cases by Heather McGowan
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It can be hard to define boundaries when it comes to school rules, free speech and First Amendment rights. Do students check their constitutional rights when they step on school grounds? Don’t public schools serve as an arena and practicing ground for students to learn and express ideas, and to communicate with other students?

These are some of the questions presented by the landmark case Tinker v. Des Moines (1969).

 
  • Students don’t check their First Amendment rights at the school door
  • School district failed to show reason to limit free speech in Tinker v. Des Moines
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Protesting the War and Black Armbands

In December 1965, controversy over the war in Vietnam was widespread, from protest marches in Washington, DC, down to local peace movement groups in central Iowa. Three Des Moines students were suspended from school for wearing and refusing to remove black armbands symbolizing opposition to the war.

The students and their parents were active in a local peace movement group, which planned the armband display for mid-December. School district officials adopted a ban on black armbands several days before the suspensions.

Each student wore a black armband to school, refused to remove it, and was suspended. First was Chris Eckhardt, suspended from Roosevelt High School on December 15. Later that day, Mary Beth Tinker was suspended from Harding Junior High. Finally, John Tinker was suspended from North High School the next day. The students returned to school in January.

First Court Cases Support the Schools 

The students, through their parents, filed a lawsuit in federal district court seeking an injunction to stop the school district’s enforcement of the armband policy, and nominal damages. The district court dismissed the lawsuit, and the US Court of Appeals sustained the decision.

The US Supreme Court agreed to review the case, and issued its judgment February 24, 1969.

First Amendment Applies Even at School

The Court reversed the lower courts’ decisions, and ruled that the school district violated the students’ First Amendment rights. Schools can’t restrict students’ free speech if it doesn’t:

  • Disrupt class work
  • Involve substantial disorder
  • Invade the rights of others

The black armbands, about two inches wide, were examples of symbolic speech, expressing meaning without words. Some forms of symbolic speech common in 1965 were much more dramatic, such as draft card burning and protest marches.

It was clear to the Court that a school trampled students’ free speech rights if it banned expression because the topic was controversial. The school district’s ban of only black armbands, a silent and passive display of an opinion, breached First Amendment rights just the same.

After Tinker and Today 

Later cases defined other conditions limiting student free speech rights. Schools can limit speech when it:

We still see disputes over student conduct and expression involving clothing, jewelry and speech. Many cases turn on the facts, so did Tinker go too far, taking away from school control, or not far enough in protecting student rights?

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Heather McGowan