What are the free expression rights of students in public schools under the First Amendment?
The freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and petition are often collectively referred to as the freedom of expression, and the U.S. Supreme Court has developed a separate body of case law regarding the free expression rights of students. In defining the free expression rights of students in a public school, the Court has developed the following tests: I. The Tinker Standard (Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, 1969) When 15-year-old John Tinker, his sister Mary Beth, 13, and Christopher Eckhardt, 16, wore black armbands to their Iowa public schools in December 1965 to protest the Vietnam conflict, they never imagined their actions would lead to a landmark First Amendment decision. Yet their protests culminated in the leading First Amendment free speech case for public school students. The case arose when a group of parents and students in Des Moines, Iowa, met at the Eckhardt home and decided to protest the U.S. government’s involvement in Vietnam.
