Supreme court landmark serles: tinker v. des moines
from uscourts. gov
in 1965, students at des moines schools in lowa were suspended for
staging protests. their actions resulted in a legal battle that eventually
went to the supreme court.
the supreme court used the case of tinker v. des moines to make a
very broad statement and establish a rule for protecting the speech
rights of students during the school day. they began by saying that
students don't lose their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gates.
it's a landmark case because it made very clear that we need to take the
civil liberties of students seriously while they're on school campuses.
teaching young people how to exercise their rights of citizenship and
allowing them to do it is at the heart of our democracy. if you cut off
speech while people are learning both their own personalities and
identities, and also how to behave in the world, you minimize the
likelihood that theyll be active participants in democracies.
the court case continues to impact our lives today because it has been
used to protect students' speech that schools have improperly cut off.
that's why it's so important for average citizens, children, and their
families to know the law, use it and be prepared to stand up for it.
read the passage. then complete the objective summary. the excerpt from uscourts. gov's "supreme court landmark series: tinker v. des moines"