My plan was to publish this post on Monday, but I didn't want to burden you with the exam looming on Wednesday, so that's the reason for the delay.
In Chapter 3, we discussed several significant U.S. Supreme Court cases involving the free speech rights of students. On one hand, we have Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969), which recognized broad First Amendment rights for grade school students. But on the other hand, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that those rights were limited by school authority in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1988).
Consider your own grade school experiences in the context of these decisions. Were your experiences more like how the students were treated in Tinker (i.e., with respect), or more like Hazelwood (i.e., fewer free expression rights).
Please share your experience (or the experience of friends or classmates) in the comments. If you were home schooled, consider your experience in that context and how you were treated with respect to your right to express yourself.
49 comments:
My experience was more like the Hazelwood situation. I was on our school's weekly news show, and just about every week we would have to redo or cut out a segment because the principal did not approve of the subject matter.
A specific example I can think of is when a girl on the cheerleader squad was caught with having alcohol in her car on the school grounds. She was suspended from school and all squad activities for several weeks. When we came back and started cheering again, we wanted to make a positive story about how students can make mistakes but rise above them. The principal heard of this, and he intervened and told us we could not air the story because it brought attention to alcohol on school premises.
This sort of thing happened time and time again. Not just in this club, but in many clubs I experienced throughout my time in grade school.
I went to a very small 1A district school. I graduated with a class of 46 students. So, as you can imagine it was hard to stay off the radar. We had a strict dress code. No bandanas or plain white T-shirts. For girls, finger tip length shorts, skirts, and dresses, no bra straps visible, no spaghetti strap shirts, no cleavage. For boys, tucked in shirts with a belt (this was a big one that sent someone home almost every day), clean shaven, hair above the ears. No visible tattoos, no facial piercings, girls were allowed to have two ear piercings per ear max, and no unnatural hair colors.
I feel that most of these dress code rules were understandable, but some were a little extreme.
All of these were taken very seriously. If a guy came to class with stubble on his face it was guaranteed he would be sent to the office and handed a disposable razor to shave with.
In middle school and early high school these rubber bracelets called "silly bands" became really popular. They came in all different colors and shapes based on the theme of each pack. Eventually students started selling, buying and trading them and they were soon banned for being a distraction. To us it was just the school taking away something we enjoyed. All of these are examples that feel most closely related to the Hazelwood style where students were closely monitored and controlled.
However, with a small school come some perks. We got to enjoy off-campus lunch once we reached 9th grade. Most people I know from other schools didn't get this luxury. Letting students leave campus every day for 35 minutes was very trusting of the school and this I feel is more of a Tinker type of treatment. So I guess I can relate to both.
Lindsey Byrnes
I grew up in a 1A school that was almost 6 man my senior year. It was almost IMPOSSIBLE not to get into trouble. My school situation was more like Hazelwood. We had fewer rights, definitely. You couldn't have single strand of high that was an "unnatural" color, no shoulder showing for girls, no yoga pants, no food or drink, no phones, etc. They would actually send the boy's to the bathroom with a $1.00 razor to shave their face if they had too much facial hair. Coaches would punish the boy's if their hair was "too long." My school staff really got high on the control, I assume it's from being from a small town. I was on the yearbook staff through all my years and what could be written in the yearbook was very closely watched. Honestly, it was ridiculous. The kid's still there with our new principle, say it's more like a prison. :)
My school experience was more along the lines of the Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier case. We had strict dress code and grooming rules, much like pretty much ever school has. No shorts to short, no unnaturally colored hair and so on.
I had to have my sister bring me new shorts one time because they were BARELY shorter than my fingertips.
Got a little ridiculous because it seemed like me getting called to the office to measure my shorts was disrupting more of my school time than the shorts were bothering anyone else.
- Dominique M.
My experience in grade school was more like Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier. Free speech was limited in every aspect. Students weren’t allowed to use profanity, clubs like year book weren’t allowed to publish material that was considered inappropriate, there was a dress code, theatre students couldn’t do plays over topics considered inappropriate, and dancers/cheerleaders couldn’t do cheers/dances that were considered inappropriate. These rules also applied at school functions, not just on campus. For example, I personally witnessed someone getting kicked out of a football game for using profanity. Dress code, using profanity, dancing inappropriately, etc. also applied at events like prom and homecoming as well. The reason behind most of these limits on speech and expression were because it was considered disruptive to the educational process. I even got in trouble my sophomore year for putting one pink steak in my hair, and I was told that it was a distraction to the students around me and I received In School Suspension.
-Brittany Vella
My experience in high school was a unique one. I am from an affluent neighborhood in Dallas, and we had a strong sense of social efficacy within our community. The school would take a stance and punish those students who acted out, or broke the rules, but a large part of the punishment was from the community as a whole. Hazelwood v. Kulmeirer would be more relatable with my high school experience though. The school officials had complete control over anything that was published, produced or created within those high school walls.
I know when one my friend’s sisters killed her self we all wore green sweatbands with her initials on them (similar to the Tinker case), and the school asked us to not wear them because they might make other students sad. The next day we passed out 200 armbands. With strong support and large numbers the school understood our stance on depression, and anti-suicide, and gladly supported the cause at that point. This example could be made for how school officials treated us with respect, as in the Tinker v. Des Moines.
Both cases may apply to my personal experience in high school.
Rachel M
My high school experience was pretty normal. I think that living in Austin, the stereotype of the blue dot in the red state predominates in all aspects of the city.
My high school was pretty open for students to meet and have bible study and praise and worship every once in a while. At some point the christian community feels like is the minority now, while we are still considered a "majority."
Most students had the freedom to practice their religious views, and lifestyle.
But with all this freedom there's always a downside. I am not against the most extensive possibility of First Amendment rights for all citizens, but most of the times the thought of under aged citizens believing they know the fine line between First Amendment rights and "hate speech" is very blurry.
I don't think teenagers realize how harmful they can be and the impact they have on the words that come out of their mouth towards other teenagers. That's why we see a lot of people bullied and attempting suicide because at this age they are very self conscious about what their class mates thinks of them.
We were thankfully treated more like Tinker, with a lot of respect. But not everyone knows how to use their mouths wisely.
My experience was more like Hazelwood. No extreme hair colors, no extreme clothing and dress codes. We didn't really have free expression rights and if we did they were extremely limited. I grew up in Amarillo, its pretty much the bible belt of Texas and everyone is conservative and the schools most definitely didn't want to have a bad name for themselves or deal with scandal. The school newspaper/Tv broadcast teams were extremely limited as to what they could write or report. Everything went through school administrators first before publication/broadcast. I agree with the fact that certain things should be limited to younger age students because they are easily swayed. Then again, I also feel like freedom of expression is how we grow into our own as adults. So limiting too much will just shelter youth and they will never be ready for "real world" situations.
Leanna T.
High School seems like so long ago, and I may be idealizing it a little, but I would like to think that we had a fair amount of freedom. We were the first graduating class of a 5A high school near Sugar Land and our principal was on a mission to make our school more like a home. We had every club from Gay Straight Alliance, to multiple religious societies and political associations. There were dress codes, of course, but as a whole we always came together. I was friends with my principal and all my teachers and attended several of their weddings after high school. The AG program I was part of got to raise chickens and start a greenhouse in the middle of fairly urban area. The only time that I remember fealing that they overstepped bounds was when they put a dress code on homecoming saying that no strapless or spaghetti strap dresses could be worn and dresses with cutouts were prohibited. Of course, no one listened (except me) and there weren't any consequences. Overall, my high school experience was mostly like Tinker.
I went to two different high school's, and they were both very different. One of them was a small private institution, and the other was a large public school. I feel that my experience at the private school was a lot like how students were treated in the Hazelwood case, for obvious reasons, but I remember a few specific events that happened which remind me of how the students of Hazelwood were treated. One time, a teacher pulled me aside and said I must go to the principal's office because I had black nail polish on... NO, really. I can only remember that I received a demerit for violating dress code. Since it was school policy and a private institution, I realize they had the right to whatever rules they wanted (within reason I'm sure), but I still feel as though none of us were ever treated as free adults.
At the public high school, though, I felt that I was treated much more like an adult, like in the Tinker case. We were allowed to hold hands with others, wear shorts, color our hair weird colors and pretty much dress however we wanted as long as it was appropriate. There were rules, but for the most part they were very reasonable.
- Kimberly Sabatino
My grade school experience was actually a mixture of both. When I was in high school, the administration was constantly changing and some administrators were cooler than others.
There was always a dress code in place and it all seemed pretty reasonable to me. It depended who was in charge on whether you got in trouble for breaking the dress code or not.
In terms of student media in high school, we were never told we could not produce one thing or another. We had the freedoms like Tinker in that sense.
My grade school experience was most like Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier. I remember the school principles calling us into the office constantly just to address what we were wearing or if our hair color changed over the weekend. Some of the assistant principles were cool about it but it seemed like they still called us in just to show us who had authority. We had free expression rights, but they were limited. I have friends on Facebook that have siblings that still attend The Woodlands High School. In their pep rally photos they are wearing short shorts and tank tops, so I assume they are more lenient now.
Jaclyn Elbert
During High School I had an experience like the Hazelwood v. Kuhmeier case. One of my classmates had made an “anonymous” Facebook where he/she wrote very vulgar comments about all the students in my class.
To name a few, some of the detailed comments talked about which girls he/she thought were going to grow up to be porn stars and/or prostitutes. Not only did this individual talk poorly about students, but the Facebook page also had comments about the school’s staff.
Eventually the school found out about this anonymously made Facebook page and they threaten us by saying that they could find out who had made it (how? Yo no se.) Surprisingly, the school gave whoever made it the chance to delete the page before the school involved the “authorities” (whoever they are, they never said.)
I know that students have free expression rights, unless it disrupts the educational process but I wonder if the school really could have taken matters into their own hands in this situation.
-Andrea Garza
I never ran into any problems but a guy who was in my Sophomore english class felt the school's iron fist on this one.
The guy was totally fine and the teacher hadn't even noticed what he was wearing until he spoke up in class for a discussion we were having. Our teacher acknowledged him, responded was about to move onto the next kid when he did a double take back at the kid who just spoke. Turns out the kid ran out of clean clothes so had to dig into his dad's clothes and wore a Wild Turkey Bourbon shirt to school, apparently wearing shirts with an alcoholic logo on them is in violation of dress code.
Our teacher was notoriously laid back but for some reason he had a very high amount of respect for the dress code. He demanded the kid go to the office to get another shirt or he was going to send him to the Asst. Principals office.
Definitely a Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier situation.
End result: the kid was too stubborn to get another shirt (which were usually something embarrassing) and he took the trip to the principal's office.
I would say that my school experience was more like the Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District case. I say that because my high school was pretty strict about dress code. The most strict thing was that boys couldn't have facial hair, which sounds insane, but it was for a safety reason. If someone walked into our high school and had facial hair, then our faculty knew they weren't a student.
Amanda Emmons
I personally never had an issue with dress code at my high school but the school was definitely very hypocritical. The teachers and assistant principles would give some of the girls a hard time over what they chose to wear, like their shorts were too short, pretty much all of the usual dress code issues. But for what ever reason my school chose to avoid the issue of one guy who would wear dresses and high heels on a regular basis. Personally I do not have an issue with people wearing what they want but if they make girls cover up because what they are wearing is "distracting," isn't it a little more distracting seeing a guy in women's clothing? I guess the school did not want to get in trouble for discrimination but you can't enforce a rule but completely disregard that rule for another person just because it may be uncomfortable.
-Chris Smith
I personally never had an issue with dress code at my high school but the school was definitely very hypocritical. The teachers and assistant principles would give some of the girls a hard time over what they chose to wear, like their shorts were too short, pretty much all of the usual dress code issues. But for what ever reason my school chose to avoid the issue of one guy who would wear dresses and high heels on a regular basis. Personally I do not have an issue with people wearing what they want but if they make girls cover up because what they are wearing is "distracting," isn't it a little more distracting seeing a guy in women's clothing? I guess the school did not want to get in trouble for discrimination but you can't enforce a rule but completely disregard that rule for another person just because it may be uncomfortable.
-Chris Smith
My high school experience was more like Tinker than Hazlewood. Although I grew up in a small town, the teachers were pretty lenient- except when it came to dress code. No facial hair, no blue hair, and no holes in the jeans.
- wade e
I went to a fairly large high school in Austin, Texas where we had a very strict dress code. No images displaying alcoholic brands or drugs were allowed, the typical no short shorts, no spaghetti strap, no midriff, no colored hair, no hats, no revealing necklines policy was strictly enforced. If a student were to violate this policy, they would be sent to the main office where they had big spare T-shirts for these students to wear. If the T-shirt did not solve the problem, they would be written up and sent home for the day. Due to this reason I would say that my old high school treats students more like the Hazelwood's case.
-Camila Pulecio
My school experience was more like Hazelwood. Hair colors had to be natural, guys hair couldn't go past their ears, and girls couldn't wear shirts that exposed their shoulders. There really wasn't any room for expression among students. Those who dared to express themselves either faced detention or suspension. I grew up in a small country town- Lockhart TX, and it wasn't all that bad. I really didn't mind the guidelines the school district had in place. But I could understand the students who felt the right to express themselves especially during a time where students are experiencing changes about themselves.
In High School, teachers were very strict about dress code depending on who you were. I noticed that most of us guys could wear what we wanted, but girls were sent to the principle daily because of their attire. Ironically, the cheerleaders could wear their uniforms to school and not get in trouble, even though they were actually shorter than the allowed amount. Aside from what we could/couldn't wear, we were also not allowed to have our phones... I once got my taken up and had to pay 20 dollars to have it back from the principle because I was checking the time. Its for this reason that I totally agree that students (High School in particular) are having their First Amendment rights slowly chiseled away as the school pleases.
- Michael Hubbell
Grade school easily fell into the Tinker category. At that age, no one really wears anything out of line. In middle school, Hazelwood would have applied. That's when we had the strictest dress code. It wasn't bad, but we had to wear our shirts tucked in at all times, even during P.E. games. High school reverted back to Tinker. Though, there was one time I had to put tape over a shirt that I had worn about 15 times earlier. It was a rare incident.
Grade school easily fell into the Tinker category. At that age, no one really wears anything out of line. In middle school, Hazelwood would have applied. That's when we had the strictest dress code. It wasn't bad, but we had to wear our shirts tucked in at all times, even during P.E. games. High school reverted back to Tinker. Though, there was one time I had to put tape over a shirt that I had worn about 15 times earlier. It was a rare incident.
Jonathan R.
Like some of these other comments, I also graduated from a tiny 1A school in a class of about 39. It was definitely hard to keep to yourself due to the lack of people in our high school (195 total). That being said, it felt like the school administrators made sure that we knew they had control. From dress code rules, to strict punishment for minor offenses, there was no way that they would let us do anything without their approval.
In some ways, it seemed quite ridiculous that we we're under school official's thumb so much. My example of this was not being able to make homemade signs at school baseball games, because they were a "distraction". As a player, I felt disrespected because I felt that took away from the atmosphere of the event, and discouraged school pride, and stifled creativity- as well as squashed the rights of fellow students and parents.
- C. Woods
My high school experience was more like Hazelwood than Tinker. As a cheerleader, we were in charge of painting signs and banners for games and pep rallies. I remember going to other schools, seeing all their creative, witty signs and wanting to do the same for our school, but our cheer sponsors didn't want to offend anyone so we were always restricted to making boring, "safe" signs. But much like the Hazelwood case, since cheering was a school-sponsored activity, we had to obey the rules and regulations set for us.
Bailey S.
Even though I've gone to at least 13 different schools in my primary and secondary education, I would say I experienced a more Hazlewood styled rule over me at most of my schools. My last school was an American school in Korea ran under the Department of Defense, so much of the rules were those applied under military law. For example, we were prohibited from visiting certain areas in Korea, or joining any protests, especial those with anti american sentiments, in the logic that if we attended any of these demonstrations, we would be seen as a representative of USA.
Plus if we did anything bad, it would go up the chain of command. You parent's bosses got involved, and your parents would get in trouble for not disciplining you well enough to follow regulations.
Oddly enough, because we all grew up in that system, it didn't feel as oppressing as it might've sounded. It was normal, and my experiences growing up and being educated through the DOD educational system has been a good one that I'm grateful for.
-Roy Q.
High school for me was more like Hazelwood than Tinker, as most schools were I believe. We had a very strict dress code and weren't able to "express ourselves" the way many students would have liked. I attended a 5A school where keeping up with everyone was a bit tough, but they sure tried. My sophomore year, we got new administrators and they definitely tried to enforce more rules for us to follow. They even put up cameras all over campus.
Of course the dress code was strict, and guys could have only one stud in their ear if any. Their shorts had to be along their waistline and girls shorts had to be finger tip long. Jeans couldn't have any holes in them, and that was probably the biggest issue because around that time that was the "style". Basketball shorts were also banned. As far as lunch goes, we were treated like elementary students, so many rebelled and drove off-campus for lunch. Needless to say, we eventually had a guy that we all nicknamed "hot wheels" that drove around monitoring the parking lot to see which cars would leave and come back.
Overall, we were definitely being watched closely!
-Amber Wolf
I was in private school through the tenth grade, where the students had absolutely no rights. The one time I received a demerit was when I had pulled a compact mirror out of my backpack in order to pull something out of my eye that was agitating me. My computer science teacher never let me explain and assumed that I was applying makeup (because girls were not allowed to wear makeup). In private school, we were to wear uniforms and were written up for wearing anything with a logo on it (shoes, sweaters, etc.) and we were also written up for having our shirts untucked, etc. Kids were written up for the most minor reasons; I could probably make a list, but it would probably be as long as The Dead Sea Scrolls. After the tenth grade, I switched to a 5A (obviously public) high school with very diverse demographics. During my last two years of high school, my school was featured on the news twice because of the instability of student behavior. First Amendment rights were also disallowed, even at my public school due to the hostility of the different groups of kids. One particular instance I recall was having the police come to my school and watching it on the Houston nightly news. It involved the fighting between transplanted Katrina victims and kids that were affiliated with gangs. As far as dress code, the clothing obviously couldn't display suggestive or violent content. The students could not have radical haircuts and had certain restrictions on facial hair. Piercings were not allowed, except for one in each earlobe, if you were a girl. The dress code was pretty standard, compared to the typical Texas high school, it seems. All in all, with both the private and public schools that I attended, my experience was more relatable to Hazelwood, as opposed to Tinker.
I was in private school through the tenth grade, where the students had absolutely no rights. The one time I received a demerit was when I had pulled a compact mirror out of my backpack in order to pull something out of my eye that was agitating me. My computer science teacher never let me explain and assumed that I was applying makeup (because girls were not allowed to wear makeup). In private school, we were to wear uniforms and were written up for wearing anything with a logo on it (shoes, sweaters, etc.) and we were also written up for having our shirts untucked, etc. Kids were written up for the most minor reasons; I could probably make a list, but it would probably be as long as The Dead Sea Scrolls. After the tenth grade, I switched to a 5A (obviously public) high school with very diverse demographics. During my last two years of high school, my school was featured on the news twice because of the instability of student behavior. First Amendment rights were also disallowed, even at my public school due to the hostility of the different groups of kids. One particular instance I recall was having the police come to my school and watching it on the Houston nightly news. It involved the fighting between transplanted Katrina victims and kids that were affiliated with gangs. As far as dress code, the clothing obviously couldn't display suggestive or violent content. The students could not have radical haircuts and had certain restrictions on facial hair. Piercings were not allowed, except for one in each earlobe, if you were a girl. The dress code was pretty standard, compared to the typical Texas high school, it seems. All in all, with both the private and public schools that I attended, my experience was more relatable to Hazelwood, as opposed to Tinker.
Mary Metaxas
I was in private school through the tenth grade, where the students had absolutely no rights. The one time I received a demerit was when I had pulled a compact mirror out of my backpack in order to pull something out of my eye that was agitating me. My computer science teacher never let me explain and assumed that I was applying makeup (because girls were not allowed to wear makeup). In private school, we were to wear uniforms and were written up for wearing anything with a logo on it (shoes, sweaters, etc.) and we were also written up for having our shirts untucked, etc. Kids were written up for the most minor reasons; I could probably make a list, but it would probably be as long as The Dead Sea Scrolls. After the tenth grade, I switched to a 5A (obviously public) high school with very diverse demographics. During my last two years of high school, my school was featured on the news twice because of the instability of student behavior. First Amendment rights were also disallowed, even at my public school due to the hostility of the different groups of kids. One particular instance I recall was having the police come to my school and watching it on the Houston nightly news. It involved the fighting between transplanted Katrina victims and kids that were affiliated with gangs. As far as dress code, the clothing obviously couldn't display suggestive or violent content. The students could not have radical haircuts and had certain restrictions on facial hair. Piercings were not allowed, except for one in each earlobe, if you were a girl. The dress code was pretty standard, compared to the typical Texas high school, it seems. All in all, with both the private and public schools that I attended, my experience was more relatable to Hazelwood, as opposed to Tinker.
Mary Metaxas
I was in private school through the tenth grade, where the students had absolutely no rights. The one time I received a demerit was when I had pulled a compact mirror out of my backpack in order to pull something out of my eye that was agitating me. My computer science teacher never let me explain and assumed that I was applying makeup (because girls were not allowed to wear makeup). In private school, we were to wear uniforms and were written up for wearing anything with a logo on it (shoes, sweaters, etc.) and we were also written up for having our shirts untucked, etc. Kids were written up for the most minor reasons; I could probably make a list, but it would probably be as long as The Dead Sea Scrolls. After the tenth grade, I switched to a 5A (obviously public) high school with very diverse demographics. During my last two years of high school, my school was featured on the news twice because of the instability of student behavior. First Amendment rights were also disallowed, even at my public school due to the hostility of the different groups of kids. One particular instance I recall was having the police come to my school and watching it on the Houston nightly news. It involved the fighting between transplanted Katrina victims and kids that were affiliated with gangs. As far as dress code, the clothing obviously couldn't display suggestive or violent content. The students could not have radical haircuts and had certain restrictions on facial hair. Piercings were not allowed, except for one in each earlobe, if you were a girl. The dress code was pretty standard, compared to the typical Texas high school, it seems. All in all, with both the private and public schools that I attended, my experience was more relatable to Hazelwood, as opposed to Tinker.
Mary Metaxas
I went to a school district where every kid was monitored by campus police. We were required to wear clear backpacks, shirts with no lettering and no open toe shoes. There were cameras in the lunch room and hallways. It didn't feel like a school. This is similar to the Hazelwood case where the students weren't respected.
Luckily my dad decided to move me to another school in San Antonio and it turned out being completely opposite. We could wear pretty much anything and have our hair dyed any color. We were encouraged to be our own individual selves. We were respected just like the students were in the Tinker case.
My school was very much like the Hazelwood case; very similar to the stories my classmates are speaking of. My high school had strict dress code rules, and strict regulations on what student organizations were able to do/say. I was on the drill team, and for every routine we did, our uniforms, makeup, dance routine and music had to be approved by the administration.
Katie M.
I actually went to a performing arts high school, and looking back on my time there I would have to say that I am grateful for what I got out of it. I was a theatre major. And if I had to use one of the cases to describe my experiences there, I think I would go with the Hazelwood case. There were several times I felt as if we were weren't getting to push the envelope creatively as much as I would have liked. One example sticks in my head. My senior year we did the play version of Alice in Wonderland. Originally we were going to do a longer, more serious version. Eventually that version got cut and we had to do the sillier, junior play version. I remember thinking it sort of felt like a theme park play. In the end it was still fun, though. I got to play the Mad Hatter!
My situation would be more of a Tinker case than Hazlewood. Me and a group of friends for tacky day got in trouble for wearing one pants leg up and one pants leg down, because the principal said it was related to gang violence. We were just confused because it was tacky day none of us were even apart of a gang or thought about gangs in the process of dressing up tacky. We had to roll our pants leg down and not participate in the tacky day tradition.
-Paitra Pleasant
My school experience was a mixture of both cases. I went to a small high school where every new school year the school officials would try to enforce the dress codes, but because students would never follow them they eventually stopped trying.
-Jenna H.
I would have to say our school was down the middle between Tinker and Hazelwood. They allowed some facial hair depending on the style. For instance, I have sideburns and they never said a word to me about shaving them off, but if you had a mustache or a goatee then you hade to shave it.
They were more strict when it came to dress code. Shorts had to be a certain length and if you had any profanity or even a picture of a gun on your shirt you got suspended.
I wanted to wear a hat, but that was against the rules during school. The minute the bell rang you could wear a hat.
Aaron A.
I graduated from a large public school in Austin. For the most part, we had great freedom of expression like Tinker; especially when it came to art projects and student journalism. However, it was like Hazelwood when it came to the dress code. Girls couldn't wear revealing clothes...
Mayra Toscano said...
My experience in grade school was more like Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier. Our first amendment rights were definitely challenged. I went to a 5-A school and for the most part, we had some freedom, but not when it came to dress code. At a certain point we weren't allowed to wear plain color t-shirts because they could signify a "gang" or "rebellious group." We also were not allowed to wear ripped jeans or anything revealing for that matter. It got to the point where a uniform was enforced and students could no longer express themselves in the way they dressed. I don't feel that anyone had a say. I agree with a certain restriction to "distracting"" clothing but to completely take away any say in the decision, I felt was unfair.
I feel as if my school experience was more like hazelwood. I recall one time during my junior year someone posted pictures of my friends at a party. We were all cheerleaders and there were red cups in the photos. No alcohol was present but it could be assumed that we were drinking. Another student in school printed out the pictures and turned them into the principle. Though the party was not during school or even anywhere near school, we were still all suspended for a few football games and couldn't cheer. Not a severe punishment at all but still used as an example for other school athletes who are considered 'role models.'
Ashley Ford
My high school was more like tinker. I never felt restricted as far as freedom of speech was concerned. I did notice that girls seemed to get busted for dress code viloations more than boys.
^Carlie Porterfield
My experience in high school would be more like the Tinker case. While students at my school did not have to wear uniforms, our dress codes at times was enforced insanely strict. My friends and I were singled out for wearing t-shirts with rock/metal bands names and images on them. School officials said we were promoting devil worshiping, death, etc. It actually got so bad that I'd have faculty waiting to check my clothes when I came in to school for the day.
Travis Atkinson
During high school, I remember thinking of that place like a concentration camp. It seemed people were getting in trouble for the darnedest things. Now that I'm out and a little more grown up I understand that they couldn't just let the kids do whatever they wanted or else it would be madness. I would still say that it was a lot more like Hazlewood v Kuhlmeier. Dress codes were enforced pretty strictly, being late/skipping class was a no-no, and most of the faculty were on the conservative side. I do realize that other schools were probably a lot worse.
My high school expeirence was a mixture of both, but as a student it felt like Tinker. Authority would often make bogus rules at the last minute to keep the students from exercising their rights. If ever they heard of anything we were planning to do outside of school that required students we would get called to the office and they would often pull up a policy that had nothing to do with our plans and explain how we could get in trouble. Often times our parents let us do what we wanted to do anyway. I remember one time a few of my friends were playing a trick on social media and it got back to the principal. Although the joke was not tasteful it had nothing to do with school and my friends received detention for it. I was extremely ready to leave my high school. I feel like because the town was so small and everyone heard about everything...my high school principal tended to things that were not school related, but used school polices to punish students.
I would say that my High School experience was more like Hazelwood. One of my friends and I once wrote an article in the school newspaper about President Obama whenever he was running for President for the first time. I'm from a conservative town which has a lot to do with it.
I would say my high school experience could relate to those in the case of Tinker. We were free to practice religion and say a student led prayer before games.
A time that is closely related to this case is when a friend of mine and football star committed suicide during the school year. Many kids in the school wore wristbands with his name and the football players wore his number on their helmet. Our school was very supportive of the students rallying together to remember our friend.
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