Student Rights

1. Student Rights Speech Expression and Privacy

2. Unit Questions • How far can school officials go in restricting student speech in the interest of school safety? • What limits can school officials place on student speech that occurs off of school grounds? • Is a student’s choice of dress protected by the 1st Amendment? • Is it constitutional for school officials to censor a school sponsored publication, such as a newspaper or a yearbook?

3. Student Rights v State Rights • Education is not a fundamental right • Students do have 1st and 14th Amendment rights • Balancing responsibility • Public schools respect the rights of the student • Students respect their obligations to the state

4. Tinker v Des Moines SC 1969 Major Concepts • http://www.rightsmatter.org/multimedia/ or @ http://www.aclu.org/free-speech/mary-beth-tinker-40th-anniversary-landmark-free-speech-decision Facts Question Decision Rationale • Students do not shed rights at the school house door • Must have a reasonable forecast of substantial disruption Free Speech

5. Bethel v Fraser SC 1986 • Facts • Question • Decision • Rationale Free Speech

6. Student Speech Chandler v. McMinnville • During the strike the district hired replacement teachers. Two students wore and distributed buttons that displayed slogans, “I am not listening scab.” and “Do scabs bleed?” The students refused to remove the buttons and were suspended from school for the remainder of the school day. They filed suit claiming violation of their free speech rights under state and federal constitution.

7. Morse v Frederick SC 2007 • http://www.aclu.org/free-speech/morse-v-frederick-information-and-resources (video) • http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17687386/ (video)

8. You be the Judge! • Robert was a generally disruptive student who frequently skipped school. One day a community parade, celebrating a local war hero, was held. Part of the route went past the school. Robert, who skipped school that day, was photographed holding a sign across the street from the school during the parade that said ”Keep the Peace: Smoke Some Weed”. All of the students were allowed to leave school, to stand outside to see the hero go by. Many were encouraged to wave signs of support. His principal saw the photo in the evening newspaper, and suspended him for holding up the sign.

9. Areas of student speech that can be censored • Obscene, lewd and vulgar • Speech which can be reasonably forecasted to cause material and substantial disruption • School sponsored

10. School Uniforms • Canady v Bossier 5th Circuit 2001

11. Student Publications • Hazelwood v Kuhlmeier SC 1988 • Diagram • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNtailTq5vA&feature=related • http://www.splc.org/legalresearch.asp?id=3

12. Concepts Cases • Internet communication is • Protected under the 1st Amendment • More related to print than broadcast • Internet as instruction • Internet that has undesirable effect on school conduct • Beussink v Woodland R-IV US District 1998 • Wisniewski v Bd of Ed 2nd Circuit 2007 Internet and Free Speech

13. Analysis of Internet law • Student cyberspace created on campus that is lewd, vulgar, or profane may be prohibited Bethel • Student cyberspeech created off-campus that constitutes a true threat to school safety and school operation may be prevented Tinker • Student cyberspeech cases are increasingly subject to a court’s assessment restraint was exercised or punishment meted out after an assessment of the relevant facts by a reasonable recipient (school official) of the information.

14. Threat of Violence Doe v Pulaski US Court of Appeal 2002 Seventh grade student wrote a letter at home stating how he would rape, sodomize, and murder a female classmate who had previously broken up with him. The student did not send the letter, but his best friend found the letter in his room. He allowed his friend to read the letter. The friend took the letter, and gave it to the girl at school. Her friend reported it to the SRO, who conducted an investigation and informed the principal. The student was expelled. Did the District violate his 1st Amendment rights when they expelled him?

15. Privacy: Search and Seizure Balance student right to freedom from reasonable search and seizure with school’s need to maintain order and protect health and welfare

16. 4th Amendment • Enunciates and protects right of people to be secure in their person, houses, papers, and effects • Protects from unreasonable searches and seizures • Ensures that the search be specific, describing place to be searched and articles to be seized • Ensures that a search cannot be instituted by government without showing probable cause, or evidence that the search is necessary • Requires that a judge require government justification with evidence of need for the search

17. Reasonable Suspicion • Reasonable suspicion • Justified at inception • Intrusiveness affected by age, sex, infraction • Context - individualized suspicion

18. Questions: Inception of Search Could a principal threaten to call a parent to get a student to reluctantly, but voluntarily, empty his pockets producing a pipe and marijuana? Could a student be searched because he had been in a room with some items which then were missing, and later found in his possession? Could a principal search a locker because he knew the student was previously involved in drugs, and drugs were found in the locker? Could a principal search a student’s car if the student appeared to be under the influence – glassy eyes, flushed face, slurred speech, smelling of alcohol, and the search revealed cocaine?

19. Questions: Intrusiveness • Can a principal search a boy’s calculator case because it had a bulge? • Can school officials force a student to remove her jeans and submit to a visual search of her brassiere because she had ducked behind a car, and given school officials a false name?

20. Context of the Search • A loosely articulated fact pattern, not related to a specific violation, is too vague to support reasonable suspicion • Individualized suspicion is required- cannot do a wide search of groups of students without specific knowledge of rule violations by any particular student(s)

21. Searches Canine Strip Metal Detector Locker Canine Strip Metal Detector

22. Liability • Evidence could be excluded from criminal proceedings • Student can bring action for damages if officials maliciously deny student’s constitutional rights • Qualified immunity generally protects officials from liability if conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights that reasonable person would have known about

23. Cases • New Jersey v TLO SC 1985 • Vernonia v Acton SC 1995 • Pottawatomie v Earls SC 2002 • Cornfield v Consolidated 7th Circuit 1993 J • Iowa v Jones State SC Iowa 2003 • Phaneuf v Fraikin 2nd Circuit 2006

24. You be the Judge! • District conducted searches of randomly selected classrooms by having students exit the room leaving their belongings behind. School officials then search items left behind. One day they discovered a small amount of marijuana in a girl’s purse. She brought suit saying the search violated her 4th Amendment rights.

25. You be the Judge! • District conducted searches of randomly selected classrooms by having students exit the room leaving their belongings behind. School officials then search items left behind. One day they discovered a small amount of marijuana in a girl’s purse. She brought suit saying the search violated her 4th Amendment rights.

26. Guidelines for Searches • Students have a right to privacy • Courts consider the magnitude of the offense and the extent of the intrusion • Reasonable suspicion at the inception requires some evidence • Search supported by specificity of the offense and particularized knowledge of location of contraband and identity of the student • http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4183/is_20041123/ai_n10064071/?tag=rel.res2