Analysis of two recent federal court cases in which principals violated student speech rights offers guidance to middle school administrators as they attempt to address student expression. Characteristics of a successful school from the Association for Middle Level Education provide a framework for analyzing these cases in order to prevent…

This dissertation sought to determine if federal-level, post-secondary student freedom of expression case law was developing in a similar path to that at the K-12 level of education. It also investigated the ways in which a K-12, highly speech-restrictive legal standard arising from the K-12 case "Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier" has been…

The freedom to express the self and the right to a free public education sets the American public school experience apart from those of many other nations. The combination of the two often creates tensions and confrontations that become contentious leading to litigation. For the past fifty years the courts have attempted to balance the symbolic…

In "Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District", the Supreme Court ruled that students have speech rights in the school environment unless the speech causes or is likely to cause (1) a substantial disruption, or (2) interferes with the rights of others. The Supreme Court has yet to hear a case involving school officials' authority…

It has been 30 years since the U.S. Supreme Court, in the "Tinker" case, upheld three students' right to wear black armbands protesting the Vietnam War to school. Recent cases involving sagging pants and an African headwrap (dress code violations) did not meet allowable "free-speech" requirements. (MLH)