Freedom of Expression and Silent protests
One of the more pressing issues that students are facing today is how their freedom of speech is being limited. This topic can be interpreted in a few different ways, but this section will go in depth of how freedom of speech, and more so, how freedom of expression is becoming limited in the education system in the United States. This is manifested through not allowing the students to choose their own clothing, limiting word choice and expression by students, and regulating other traditional morals and ideals. Furthermore, this section will question and analyze why many minority groups face more difficult challenges when dealing with freedom of expression, as well as what silent protests are saying about this controversial topic.
Clothing
Possibly one of the most controversial topics talked about and debated in today's schooling system is clothing. What is considered proper clothing? What are student rights when it comes to freedom of speech and expression through their clothing choices? What does the law actually say, and what implications can be made about how freedom of speech stated in the First Amendment is related to the schooling system? Many of us have heard rules in high school and lower grade levels about dress codes: guys must wear pants at the waist, no hats, no excessive chains or large medallions, etc, where as the girls were told not to wear exposing clothes, short shorts, and more. Though the rules differ across districts, it is apparent that students aren't allowed to have their own freedom over their expression of clothing choices (Trotter, 2006, .
Across the United States, there have been many cases where these rights have been tested and tried. One of these involved two students by the name of Jeffery and Johnathon P, which took place in South Hadley, Massachusetts in the year of 1993. The issue arose when Jeffrey's gym teacher asked him to change the "Coed Naked Band: Do It to the Rhythm" shirt. |
His teacher exclaimed that it was unacceptable, but Jeffrey wrote to his principal. His belief was that under his rights in the First Amendment, he should be able to wear the shirt. Apparently, it hadn't been the first time he wore the shirt, and many other students were wearing it as well. The next time Jeffrey wore the shirt to class, he was suspended for three days for refusing to remove the shirt. As a result, the school board issued a new dress code which prohibited students from wearing clothing containing "lewd, vultar, or obscene designs intended to threaten, harass, intimidate, or demean an individual or group due to sex, race, color, religion, national origin, handicap, or sexual orientation". The following few weeks, Jeffery continued to wear offensive clothing, and this led the two boys and their father to take the case to the federal court.
The final decision: The court ruled in favor of the school district; the banning of these vulgar, lewd, and profane clothing was constitutional. Furthermore, many other Supreme Court cases ruled in similar fashions. Many courts have supported the schooling officials that are trying to regulate dress code to prevent students from wearing clothes that support sex, drugs, alcohol, and violence. In conclusion, issues like this are still taking place today. The issue keeps coming back, yet the courts always rule in favor of the school officials to regulate offensive clothing. This transitions into the next point; how is hate speech and clothing related to students' rights of freedom of speech in schools? (Zirkel & Gluckman, 1995, 111-114).
The final decision: The court ruled in favor of the school district; the banning of these vulgar, lewd, and profane clothing was constitutional. Furthermore, many other Supreme Court cases ruled in similar fashions. Many courts have supported the schooling officials that are trying to regulate dress code to prevent students from wearing clothes that support sex, drugs, alcohol, and violence. In conclusion, issues like this are still taking place today. The issue keeps coming back, yet the courts always rule in favor of the school officials to regulate offensive clothing. This transitions into the next point; how is hate speech and clothing related to students' rights of freedom of speech in schools? (Zirkel & Gluckman, 1995, 111-114).
Silent protests, Hate speech, and clothing: expression or discrimination? Another big part of limited freedom of expression noted in a school setting come from not being able to use silent protests as a form of discrimination. A more in depth analysis can be drawn from the example of a US Court, and its decision to bar a student's anti-gay t-shirt in the school. This issue arose in 2006 at Poway High School in California in which a student wore a shirt saying that homosexuality is shameful. The majority of the courts agreed with the U.S. Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who wrote, "Those who administer our public educational institutions need not tolerate verbal assaults that may destroy the self-esteem of our most vulnerable teenagers and interfere with their educational development."
What does this actually say about 'silent' protesting though? The case brought up the concern about minority groups and their protection against harassment as stated in the First Amendment. However, the counter argument arose about the First Amendment as well, and it proposed the question of why students couldn't wear those shirts if they were allowed freedom of expression and speech. Clothing is one of the easiest ways to raise a silent protest, which is what one student from the Poway High School by the name of Tyler Chase Harper did. He decided to sue the district when they refused him the right to wear an anti-gay shirt he hand-made. The shirt said, "Be ashamed, our school embraced what God has condemned", as well as the phrase "Homosexuality is shameful" and bible citations . |
This shirt was worn in response to the Nation gay holiday known as Day of Silence, which raises LGBT awareness. When the student was told to remove his shirt due to it causing potential conflicts, the student was forced to stay in the school office for the remainder of the day. Judge Reinhardt also wrote about a similar court case known as Tinker v Des Moines Independent Community School District, where their decision by the court was that schools can regulate student speech (and expression) for two reasons: "One is if it would result in substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities. The other — the reason cited by the 9th Circuit panel — is if the speech would "impinge upon the rights of other students." It is important to note these causes, and furthermore expand upon how minority groups are an easier target for such discrimination due to freedom of expression. Speech that targets minority groups that have been oppressed against through means of verbal and physical abuse, can cause damage in their performance in academic settings and and cause detriments in social development (Taylor, 2006, p. 37-40).
|
limited freedom of expression This video on the left takes place in California, regarding dress code. This video further gives an example of how LGBT individuals face discrimination, and how the freedoms of expression are limited for those of minorities. In this specific example, a gay couple are discriminated against regulating the dress code. This is just one example of how minorities face a higher risk for their freedoms of expression to be limited in the school system.
In this specific example, one student by the name of Kyle wanted to accompany his partner to prom in which he would be wearing a dress. However, many students in his school face discrimination against their sexuality, and one way |
this is manifested is through limiting their dress code. If they don't conform to the dress code instated by the school (that is, boys in tuxedos and women in dresses), they wouldn't be allowed to attend the school's prom. Many minorities are at more or a predisposition to being limited in their freedom of expression due to having different and unique cultural backgrounds, as well as customs. Not only does this video show how it manifests itself in the LGBT community within schools, but it shows what other outcomes affect the students due to this harassment and lack of equality with regards to freedom of expression (Essex, 2005, p. 40-47).
What about the teachers?
Not only is it important to think about the students and how their rights are infringed upon in a school setting, but it is also important to look at the contrary of how the teachers have limited rights as well in a classroom. In more recent years with advances in technology. Overall, teachers and school administrators are constantly being looked at. What they put online and what teachers express digitally can be very detrimental to their career. Not only are teachers required to uphold these regulations inside the classroom, but they are required to do so off campus as well. It has been ruled constitutionally that off-campus speech by teachers can be regulated when it is considered on-campus speech and/or expression. In other words, if off campus activities by the teacher can be connected with in-school, it can be regulated.
However, determining what is "constitutional" protected speech for school administrators has been a battle that is still ongoing in today's society, and has been ongoing since 1968 when the Supreme Court Case "Pickering v. Board of Education" stated that all teachers, and public employees, are subject to limited rights, freedoms of speech, and freedom of expression in and out of the classroom. For years following, many court cases have debated this and questioned what rights of expression teachers should and should not have (Bathon & Brady, 2010, 9. 213-226).
However, determining what is "constitutional" protected speech for school administrators has been a battle that is still ongoing in today's society, and has been ongoing since 1968 when the Supreme Court Case "Pickering v. Board of Education" stated that all teachers, and public employees, are subject to limited rights, freedoms of speech, and freedom of expression in and out of the classroom. For years following, many court cases have debated this and questioned what rights of expression teachers should and should not have (Bathon & Brady, 2010, 9. 213-226).
What's the point? It is important to parents, teachers, prospective teachers, administrators, and students to know how freedom of speech and freedom of expression is being regulated today. One of the most common forms of limiting rights in schools is through the regulation of dress code. It is important to realize both for students and staff that in a school setting, freedom of speech is limited, and the First Amendment specifically (along with a few others) doesn't uphold its fullest value in school. Many types of clothing and forms of expression can be considered hate crimes and hate speech. It is also possible for these forms of expression to be deemed unjust, vulgar, and explicit which holds no place in schools.
It is also important to recognize how these issues can cause huge problems for productive learning environments. Many of these court cases raise awareness to hate speech and discrimination in the schools, and they truly question how the rights of |
students and staff change when they enter a school. It is important to note how these forms of expression can cause bullying and other forms of discrimination. These forms of discrimination can cause students to feel unsafe in schools, judged, scared, and it can even hurt their academic performance. It is evident that students living under these conditions will have a lower attention span, thus leading to lower grade performance and lower GPA. It also causes students to ditch school due to fear and feelings of isolation. Raising awareness on these issues can help.
|
Furthermore, there are a lot of proposed social media issues that have been raised in the recent generation of technology and social media. Teacher expression is being hugely debated on today. With the increase of popularity in the social media networking page "Facebook", the issue of whether teachers and students should be friends is becoming a pressing issue. This video on the left examines three separate incidents in which teachers have been fired for inappropriate conduct with their students over Facebook. The issue is still unresolved, but it is noteworthy that three out of the fifty states in the US have made laws against teachers befriending students on social media websites, such as Facebook. This alone is a limit of a teacher's freedom of speech and expression.
|
Quick guide to preventing issues
For Parents:
- Monitor and regulate your child's clothing
- Keep an eye on a child's social media websites
- Engage in talks with your child about the differences of freedom of speech, hate speech, and what it says about the 1st Amendment.
- Be active in the student's education
- Promote healthy forms of protesting and speaking out against important issues
- Discourage a child from using social media inappropriately
- Bring awareness to discrimination issues
For Students:
-Report any form of discrimination to teachers
- Tell teachers about offensive behavior and expression of other students and staff members
- Monitor hate-speech and offensive use of language
- Treat others the way you want to be treated
- Be sensitive to issues of other socioeconomic, minority, or racial groups
- Engage in talks with your parents about these issues
- Stray away from vulgar and offensive clothing in schools
For Teachers:
- Limit student interact to during school hours
- Don't add students on social media websites until after graduation
- Refrain from vulgar and offensive comments in school
- Be culturally aware of diversity, and be respectful to minority groups
- Do not use offensive language
- Monitor the use of personal beliefs in the classroom
- Do not post inappropriate subject matter on internet sites
- Encourage students to follow these ideas
- Monitor and regulate your child's clothing
- Keep an eye on a child's social media websites
- Engage in talks with your child about the differences of freedom of speech, hate speech, and what it says about the 1st Amendment.
- Be active in the student's education
- Promote healthy forms of protesting and speaking out against important issues
- Discourage a child from using social media inappropriately
- Bring awareness to discrimination issues
For Students:
-Report any form of discrimination to teachers
- Tell teachers about offensive behavior and expression of other students and staff members
- Monitor hate-speech and offensive use of language
- Treat others the way you want to be treated
- Be sensitive to issues of other socioeconomic, minority, or racial groups
- Engage in talks with your parents about these issues
- Stray away from vulgar and offensive clothing in schools
For Teachers:
- Limit student interact to during school hours
- Don't add students on social media websites until after graduation
- Refrain from vulgar and offensive comments in school
- Be culturally aware of diversity, and be respectful to minority groups
- Do not use offensive language
- Monitor the use of personal beliefs in the classroom
- Do not post inappropriate subject matter on internet sites
- Encourage students to follow these ideas