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Home » Legal » High School Civil Liberties Project » Freedom of Expression
Frequently Asked Questions on: Free Expression What does freedom of expression actually mean? The First Amendment guarantees every individual’s right to free expression and free association, which means that the government does not have the right to forbid an individual from saying and writing what he or she likes. Every American may form clubs and organizations, and take part in demonstrations and rallies. Do I have a right to express my opinions in school? Yes. In 1969 in Tinker vs. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the Supreme Court held that students in public schools do not leave their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate. You may express your opinions orally or in writing, in leaflets or on buttons, armbands, or t-shirts. School officials may not censor only one side of a controversy. If they permit an article in the official school paper that says that premarital sex is bad, they may not censor an article that says premarital sex is good. You have a right to express your opinions as long as you do so in a way that doesn’t “materially and substantially” disrupt classes or other school activities. If you hold a protest on the school steps and block the entrance to your school building, school officials can stop you. They can probably also stop you from using language that they think is “vulgar or indecent.” Keep in mind that private schools have more leeway to set their own rules on free expression than public schools do, because they do not receive any tax dollars. Is my school allowed to have a dress code? It depends on what state you live in. In some states, students can wear their hair any way they want as long as it’s not a safety hazard (if your hair is very long, you may have to tie it back during a science experiment). Courts in other states allow school hair codes – and where hair codes are permitted, so are dress codes. Check with your local ACLU about the laws in your state. If you think your school’s dress codes and hair codes are unfair and you want to challenge them, be aware that a court probably won’t overturn the codes unless the judge finds that they’re really unreasonable, or that they’re discriminatory. Do I have to say the Pledge of Allegiance? No. The Supreme Court has held that it is just as much a violation of your First Amendment Rights for the government to make you say something you don’t want to say as it is for the government to prevent you from saying what you do want to say. You have a right to remain silently seated during the pledge. Can the school library refuse to stock certain books? This is a very complicated issue. Schools certainly have the right to pick the books they think have the greatest value for their students and to reject those that they believe have little value. On the other hand, if a school refuses to stock a book for “narrowly partisan or political reasons” reasons, meaning they just don’t agree with the authors’ viewpoints, that is censorship and censorship is unconstitutional. In the 1982 case Island Trees v. Pico, the Supreme Court ruled that school boards may not remove books from a school library just because they don’t agree with the books’ content. But in many communities around the country, school administrators and librarians are under heavy pressure from religious and other groups to censor what we read and study. If you believe that your school is censoring books because of their viewpoints, you, your teachers, and the school librarian can challenge book censorship at your school or in court. The freedom to read is the freedom to think and that is a fundamental freedom in American society. What are we allowed to say in a school paper? It depends on whether the school is paying for the production of the paper. If it is a completely student-run paper that you want to hand out in school, the school may not censor what you say or stop you from handing it out as long as the paper is not “indecent” and you do not “materially or substantially” disrupt school activities (The school may place reasonable limits on the “time, place, or manner” of handing it out.) The same rule applies to leaflets or buttons that you have created and paid for. In the official school paper, however, you might have a problem publishing an article that discusses important but controversial issues like sex education, condom distribution, or drug abuse. That is because of a 1988 Supreme Court decision, Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier that said public school administrators may censor student speech in official school publications or activities if the officials think students are saying something “inappropriate” or “harmful” even if it is not vulgar and does not disrupt. Some states, including Colorado, California, Iowa, Kansas, and Massachusetts, have “High School Free Expression” laws that give students more free speech rights than the Constitution requires. Check with your local ACLU to find out if your state has such a law. Can we slam a really bad teacher in the school paper? In your own publication, it’s your right to criticize how the people who run your school do their jobs. But you should not knowingly print something that is negative and false. That might be libel, and that could get you into trouble.
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