Running head: A STUDENT’S FREEDOM EXPRESSION RIGHTS 1

Students’ Rights and Responsibility

Cristopher R. Gamboa, Student

College of Southern Nevada

Author Note

College of Southern Nevada, EDU 210-1003, Dr. Dale B. Warby.

Students’ Rights and Responsibility

A student has been suspended due to not following the policy that apparently prohibited

him from wearing a certain accessory. Bill Foster was suspended from a large high school in the

northeastern United States, due to a policy that has been initiated to prohibit the wearing of gang

symbols such as jewelry, emblems, earrings, and athletic caps; only was this policy developed

because of gang activities that have been prevalent in school. Apparently Foster wore an earring

to school as a form of self-expression and a belief that the earring was attractive to young ladies.

Foster was not involved in gang activities, but was suspended for his act, subsequently filing for

lawsuit.

Pro Support

To support his freedom to expression rights we can look at a famous line from U.S.

Supreme Court case on school speech, “It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers

shed thei constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” -

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969). This case

involved not necessarily gang related but did involve wearing of an accessory; a accessory that

had to protest against the Vietnam war, was a black armband. Now this case on school free

speech had obvious meaning to the accessory but for an earring that wasn’t even gang-related

resulted in suspension.

Also supporting this type of case we can look at Eisner v. Stamford Board of Education

(2d Cir. 1971); a case where it resulted in being unconstitutional for it did not establish specific

procedural safeguards for the review of the materials to be distributed. Being in the Foster case,

it so happens to be that earrings that weren’t a symbol of gang relations; but to attract females

and self-expression.
FREEDOM EXPRESSION RIGHTS 3

Con Support

Another case that had to do with the school violating the student’s rights was to be

Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988). A public high school teacher had removed

articles from the high school’s newspaper, though to be inappropriate. Kuhlmeier and other

students filed lawsuit for having violated their first amendment rights. Student newspapers are

out limited public forums, since it being school sponsored, the case resulted in the decision that

the school did not violate the students’ rights.

A known case where the school also did not violate the students’ rights was the case

Morse v. Frederick (2007). This case had to be famously known for its humor but was taken very

serious for it did promote drug use. Just as the Foster case, the schools wants to ensure a safe

environment which had to come by discouraging drug use. Along with keeping a safe

environment in school, it was a policy to prohibit symbols of gang-relations.

Conclusion

I understand that the scenario specifically addresses that the policy was to prohibit the

wearing of earrings, but also stated gang related. There’s really no telling if the student is for sure

involved in gang activities unless you were to actually conduct research and get further into it,

since being in a large high school there’s a high possibility he is not gang affiliated. Also the

policy was stated clearly to prohibit earrings and the student should have realized this is a policy.

Though he was expressing his freedom expression rights, the school made a policy only to

ensure a safe environment for the school. The student’s rights were not violated, only because it

was said that earrings were prohibited.

References

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969).

Your 1st Amendment Rights. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2017, from

http://judiciallearningcenter.org/your-1st-amendment-rights/

Free speech and public schools. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2017, from

http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Public-education/The-law-and-its-

influence-on-public-school-districts-An-overview/Free-speech-and-public-schools.html

Eisner v. Stamford Board of Education (2d Cir. 1971)

Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988)