What are the limitations of freedom of expression in the public school setting?
First Amendment protection is not limited to “pure speech” – books, newspapers, leaflets, and rallies. It also protects “symbolic speech” – nonverbal expression whose purpose is to communicate ideas. In its 1969 decision in Tinker v. Des Moines, the Court recognized the right of public school students to wear black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War. The Court recognized that students in public schools “do not leave their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.” This meant that a public school student could express his or her opinion orally and in writing – in leaflets or on buttons, armbands or Tshirts. Although in 1982 the Supreme Court in Island Trees v. Pico ruled that school boards can’t remove books from a school library just because they don’t agree with their content, the tide turned against studentcreated speech six years later. In its 1988 decision in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier , the Supreme Court held that public school administrators can censor student speech in off
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