Students Rights Have Been Limited by the Supreme Court

The Hazelwood versus Kuhlmeir and Bethel School versus Fraser outcomes both prove that the rights of students have been limited by the Supreme court. Although the Tinker versus Des Moines case had established a certain protection to students rights, these two cases have also overridden the protection provided by the Supreme courts decision from Tinker.

In the Hazelwood versus Kuhlmeier, the questions were weather a school’s principle can censor articles from school sponsored news papers and weather censoring school sponsored speech violates a student’s 1rst amendment rights. The Supreme courts decision was that yes, both acts of censorship were constitutional, ruling in favor of Hazelwood Highschool. Cathay Kuhlmeier, the teacher of an advanced journalism class had sued the highschool and principle of Hazelwood on account that her students work had been censored when the p

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The courts decision was that it was ok for this type of censorship because the speech was vulgar and obscene. This decision seems to be much to vague, as it is dealing w!

ith the first amendment. The Supreme court, again, censored student’s speech and press make it illegal for obscene and vulgar expression. A students first amendment rights are being moderated, and taken away by this decision. rinciple of the highschool deleted two pages from a finished newspaper product before its distribution. The Constitution protects against this. Basically, this says that students in or on school grounds do not have the right to say or distribute material that is vulgar, obscene, or substantially and materially disruptive. The Tinkers sued the highschool on account that they felt their first amendment rights However, when these two cases were decided on, the only students still being protect by the Tinker case were students not in school, and distribution materially off of school ground to other students. The first amendment states all citizens have the freedom of speech and press. The freedom of press and speech is being put into an authority figures hands (in this case the principle), which should not be done. The speech was not legally obscene, but had many sexual references. Fraser, a student, sued the school for censorship. This decision once again, proves my point that a students freedom of speech and press is not as fulfilled as someone out of school. These students’ symbolic speech was censored, and the students were expelled.

The Tinker versus Des Moines case, which occurred before the two cases above, was a discussion made to protect students rights and speech.

Approximate Word count = 593
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

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