Students+Rights+to+Freedom+of+Speech+On-line

= **__The Case: Should Students Be Punished for Speaking Their Minds On-line__  ** =   First Amendment advocates basked in the glow of the //Tinker [vs. Des Moines] //decision for decades... [but] those same advocates now worry students’ rights to freedom of speech are again under attack. Schools regularly punish students for online comments, even if those comments are made away from school property and after school hours. Although some administrators target cyber-bullies, others punish students whose only offense is posting an online comment that the school doesn’t like.  There are numerous examples of schools punishing students for seemingly innocuous online activity. In 2012, after a Minnesota student wrote a Facebook post saying a hall monitor was “mean” to her, she was forced to turn over her Facebook password to school administrators—in the presence of a sheriff’s deputy.  In other recent cases, student banter that would have gone unnoticed in the pre-digital era has drawn swift punishment. In Kansas, a high school class president was suspended for a Twitter post making fun of his school’s football team. In Oregon, 20 students were suspended over a tweet claiming a female teacher flirted with her students. And just a few days ago, also in Kansas, a student was suspended for a tweet that made the principal “uncomfortable” (in the wording of the school’s disciplinary incident notification).  Wheeler, D. (2014, April 7). Do students still have free speech in school? //The Atlantic.// Retrieved from [|__http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/04/do-students-still-have-free-speech-in-school/360266/__]   = **__As a group, we believe students' rights to freedom of speech (and tweets) have been violated and here is our reasoning:__  ** = <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8px;"> **<span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">1.Students need a safe place to "vent" or "blow off steam". <span class="EOP SCX30002598" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> ** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8px;"> <span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">School and life can be stressful for children today and they need a safe place to express themselves and their feelings. As long as they don't make direct threats to themselves, others or the school, social media provides that safe place. They are protected by “'clearly established' law that school officials cannot punish students merely for “inappropriate” online speech" (Hudson, 2012).  <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8px;"> <span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Hudson, Jr., D. L. (2012, September 12). Note to school officials: Be wary of punishing students for online speech. //<span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">First //<span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">//Amendment Center//. Retrieved from [|__http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/note-to-school-officials-be-wary-of-punishing-students-for-online-speech__] <span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8px;"> **<span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">2.Students should be able to voice their opinions without fear of punishment. <span class="EOP SCX30002598" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> ** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8px;"> <span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Students shouldn't lose their freedom of speech rights at home or when they enter the school building. In their //<span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">[Tinker vs. Des Moines] //<span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">verdict, the court vindicated Tinker by saying students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate"(Wheeler, 2014).  <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8px;"> <span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. ( <span class="SpellingError SCX30002598" style="background-color: inherit; color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">n.d. <span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">). //<span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Oyez //<span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">. Retrieved April 21, 2016, from https://www.oyez.org/cases/1968/21 <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8px;"> **<span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">3.Administrators and the school can benefit from students freely speaking their minds. ** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8px;"> <span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">If administrators and school officials are willing to listen, they can learn of negative issues or problems within their schools. Although many times teens are not completely truthful, school officials can gain in-site into what is truly going on in the classrooms of their schools. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8px;"> <span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> "Students absolutely must have some safe space where they can complain when schools are dirty, dangerous, or overcrowded, without fear that the long arm of school discipline will reach out and grab them"(Wheeler, 2014) <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8px;"> <span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Student speech—often in defiance of administrators—has helped keep schools transparent"(Wheeler, 2014). <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8px;"> <span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">As librarians, we are responsible for upholding the principles of intellectual freedom, which means we must "Make sure everyone involved understands the right of people in a democratic society to express their concerns and that all people have the right to due process in the handling of their complaints" (//Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library Materials// retrieved from [|__http://www.ala.org/bbooks/challengedmaterials/support/strategies__] <span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> ). <span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Segoe UI',Tahoma,Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 8px;"> <span class="TextRun SCX30002598" style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">“If we don’t encourage young people to use their First Amendment rights, our society is deprived of their creativity, energy, and new ideas. This is a huge loss, and also a human rights abuse” (Wheeler, 2014).