Do Students Have Free Speech Rights #shorts

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Sorry, occupational hazard: This is not legal advice, nor can I give you legal advice. I AM NOT YOUR LAWYER. Sorry! Everything here is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Nothing here should be construed to form an attorney-client relationship. Also, some of the links in this post may be affiliate links, meaning, at no cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. But if you click, it really helps me make more of these videos! All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes. See Hosseinzadeh v. Klein, 276 F.Supp.3d 34 (S.D.N.Y. 2017); Equals Three, LLC v. Jukin Media, Inc., 139 F. Supp. 3d 1094 (C.D. Cal. 2015).

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[skippythetubrat]

Back in the early 1980s I was a senior in high school. One night I went to the mall and had a t-shirt made up with the legend "Watt Sucks" on the chest. That was a reference to James Watt, Secretary of the Interior under Reagan.

Well, the next day I apparently upset a number of teachers and some of the administration by wearing that shirt to school. I found out later that there were complaints, and the complainants were upset by the political message on my shirt. They wanted to make me turn the shirt inside out or go home (and reap a punishment for refusing to do as I was told).

Turns out that my very conservative civics teacher stood up for me. "That is political speech. As such, it is protected under the first amendment. We've been working to teach these kids to get involved, to participate in our politics - and you want to punish this kid for doing exactly what we encouraged them to do?"

Mr. True - you rocked. RIP, sir.

[dirttowater]

This is super interesting considering most schools take a hands-off approach when it comes to bullying in and outside of school.
“If it didn’t happen on school property, we’re not responsible.”

[tracyblanchard]

It's almost like the old-fashioned mentality that children are property that must respect authority under any circumstance is toxic as hell and leads to extreme abuses of power.

[DaFrancc]

My personal life and my school/work life are two separate things. If I express my opinion on social media, I shouldn’t have to worry about my school giving me detention

[nathanlonghair]

Reminds me of a story I came across on Twitter where a girl had been threatened with expulsion by the school because someone had seen her kiss her girlfriend - in her free time, not on school grounds. I’d love to just be able to brush it off with “yeah right”, but I’ve been following American news for too long to automatically disregard such stories now.

[theeNappy]

I can't see how a school can claim disciplinary jurisdiction over a student's entire life.

[xtrasaltyxs]

Most minors cuss in and out of school everyday. Why would a school punish such a thing?

[Irthex]

It's very silly for a government to police specific words.
And giving them authority outside of school hours? that's no slippery slope - that's quicksand.

[cloudstone]

I heard about this case and it just blows my mind. How insane is the US becoming for something like this to make it to the supreme court? That the school was crazy enough to punish the student to begin with and for them to stand by their decision so much for it to make it all the way to the supreme court? Just completely crazy.

[sethsanders]

Literally not at all, the school has no jurisdiction outside of school grounds, even for drugs, the school itself can not punish you for outside matters unrelated to the school. They can report it however, keep the weed a secret guys.

[MJ_M]

there was a case in my canadian high school where the provincial superior court said it was illegal to breathalyze students before the prom

[neildoe]

When I was in school, our principal straight up told us we had no rights as students. That they only applied after you graduated

[andrewzuo]

"You may not know this but students have first amendment rights." You're right, I did not know that.

[jimhunt]

I am speaking as a retired teacher. The student was unhappy for not getting her desired promotion to the varsity cheer squad. She typed F cheerleading, F softball, and I believe F the school in a midnight snapchat message to 250 of her closest friends. Someone showed it to the cheerleading coach and she suspended the girl from (only) the cheer squad for the rest of the year. I think that was a dumb overreaction by the coach. She could have ignored it or at most just had a calm chat with the student. The principal and superintendent then backed the coach, which is nice, but wrong in this case since the student wasn't threatening or bullying anyone, nor was she really disrupting how the school. It really seems to me this is about two people (student and coach) getting their feelings hurt and the student reacting normally (midnight snapchat message to vent) while the coach over-reacted and punished a student for venting her frustration at how the team was being run. The punishment wasn't terribly extreme, but it wasn't needed either.
TLDR - teachers need to allow students to vent as long as they aren't threatening or disruptive. We are supposed to be the more mature ones in the teacher - student dynamic.

[Smol_Schan]

How about instead of restricting students freedom, we teach them what to do with that freedom?

[zachrodan]

I would be interested to see a more in-depth video on this one. it seems like an interesting topic

[lunaangeleclipse]

the most i ever saw someone get from a teacher for swearing in school was a stern look or perhaps a "watch your language".

[ravenestrella]

Attorney Stone, if you see this, would be willing to please do a longer video explaining why the school might have legal standing in this case—especially legal standing that’s strong enough for them to take their case all the way to SCOTUS? Because frankly, I am baffled as to why, legally, they would have any grounds for dictating what a student does outside of school, and I would be fascinated to know what their case might be!

[Axsdnyd]

I'm not a student but I have children that will be soon. Please do a follow up when this issue is resolved in court!!

[totalolage]

"where do the rights of students end"
If it ends somewhere then it's an allowance, not a right.