Tinker V. Des Moines Independent Community School Case Study

The Supreme Court struck the delicate balance between maintaining an ordered school environment and inculcating First Amendment values within students in four cases, which together defined the boundaries of student-expression rights. The first of these cases, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District has been called the “magna carta of student’s expression rights.” The events in Tinker occurred in 1965 during the controversy of the Vietnam War. In Des Moines, Iowa, a group of adults and students objected to the Vietnam conflict by wearing black armbands. Principals in the area heard of these intentions and, “[feeling] that ‘the schools [were] no place for demonstrations,’” prohibited students from wearing black armbands to school. John and Mary Beth Tinker wore black armbands to school and were suspended when they refused to remove them. The Court held the prohibition and punishment an unconstitutional deprivation of the student’s expression rights because school officials could not of reasonably forecasted substantial disruption of school
First, society has an interest in protecting kids (especially those in the audience) from lewd , vulgar , and sexually explicit speech. Also, schools have a duty to teach student speakers the “habits and manners of civility” essential to democratic governance. Schools must teach students to responsibly consider the sensibilities of others, even when exercising their right to express unpopular viewpoints. Schools may reasonably conclude the boundaries of socially appropriate behavior cannot adequately be taught to students in an environment where the right to communicate in lewd, vulgar, and sexually explicit terms are absolute. Therefore, schools can constitutionally punish students for vulgar and lewd speech inconsistent with their educational