Free speech debate
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees some of our most important freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom to assemble and freedom to petition the government to correct wrongs or injustices.
As the nation observed Constitution Day in 2006, the First Amendment was at the center of a dispute over free speech involving students in a Michigan school.
At issue was the new dress code in the Lincoln Park School District. The dress code banned clothing with writing or pictures on it, with the exception of clothes that showed the school mascot or supported school organizations.
More than 700 parents signed petitions opposing the dress code, and students Monique, Jaicen and Jaymie Massa protested by wearing T-shirts printed with the words of the First Amendment.
They and more than 200 other students wearing clothes that did not meet the new code were sent home. When they wore the shirts again the next day, they were suspended. The school district said the dress code was meant to create a learning environment free of distractions, but opponents said it went too far.
The Michigan chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which gets involved in cases about constitutional issues, joined the debate by saying it would look into whether the dress code violated the First Amendment right of free speech. The ACLU’s Kary Moss told the Detroit Free Press, “Students do not lose their right to the First Amendment at the schoolhouse gate.”
In the courts
The courts haven’t always agreed. In fact, previous rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal courts show students in schools sometimes don’t have the same rights as other citizens.
In 2007 the Supreme Court ruled that a school could suspend a student who held up a sign with a drug message during a field trip because the sign undermined the school’s goals to reduce drug use.
The High Court also has approved drug testing for students participating in extracurricular activities, limited what students can say at assemblies and allowed an adviser to block publication of sensitive stories in a school-sponsored newspaper.
While the Supreme Court has never heard a case on school dress codes, one case is cited by both sides of the debate.
The 1969 case involved schools in Des Moines, Iowa, which had banned the wearing of armbands to protest the Viet- nam War. The High Court ruled 7-2 the school could not censor student expression unless officials could reasonably predict it would disrupt school activities.
Dress-code opponents say the ruling shows students have the right to wear clothes with messages. However, supporters say the ruling makes a distinction between “type of clothing” and “free-speech interests,” according to the national First Amendment Center.
Other U.S. courts have ruled that dress codes are constitutional if they are authorized by state law, advance an important government interest, are not related directly to blocking free expression or restrict expression in only a minimal way.